Gal Gadot speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Wonder Woman 1984”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

Israeli actress Gal Gadot talked in a new interview with L’OFFICIEL magazine about the meaningful experience she had narrating a short film for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, which is built on the site of the former Nazi concentration camp that her grandfather survived.

The Heart of Stone star, 38, has previously posted photos on social media of her grandfather Abraham Weiss, who was born Adolf Weiss in 1928 in what was then Czechoslovakia. He was 13 when Nazis invaded his native country. Weiss’ father was drafted in the army, where he died, while he, his mother and brother were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and after World War II, Weiss traveled alone to Israel. He died in 2013.

In the cover story for L’OFFICIEL‘s summer 2023 issue, Gadot said Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation contacted her asking if she would narrate a short film and the decision was a “no-brainer,” even though she did not know the video would be played for visitors at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

“I didn’t even know what I was about to narrate. I didn’t know they were gonna play it [at Auschwitz],” said the actress, producer, entrepreneur and mother-of-three. “My grandfather lost his entire family there. When he was 14 or so, if someone would have whispered into his ear that his granddaughter would tell the story of what happened in this hellish place in just a few decades…it really struck me.”

The Wonder Woman actress added that for years her grandfather never talked about his experiences during the Holocaust because “it was too painful,” but that changed after her grandmother died.

“I think he realized that life is too short, that it’s gonna end one day. He completely opened up about everything and told us the entire story,” she explained. “It was very traumatic for obvious reasons. The way he overcame it was with love, with forgiveness, with teaching people to be good people so this never happens again, and with compassion. He was like the loveliest teddy bear of a grandfather, with a smile in his eyes and not a gram of anger or frustration. I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to do this [narration] and come full circle with my grandfather.”

When asked about being the descendant of a Holocaust survivor and having the responsibility of carrying on his legacy, Gadot told the magazine, “I feel like the theme of love, compassion, acceptance, and community—all these ideas are the things that would make society better. Not division, not hate, not fear, not envy. It’s what actually is gonna bring us further to a better life.”

Gadot first revealed in January that she recorded the short film for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. She wrote in a Twitter post at the time that “standing in the recording booth, telling the unbelievable, unbearable stories, I thought about my Saba, and wondered if he would ever imagine his on [sic] granddaughter, telling these stories, in Hebrew, for the world to hear.”

“This was one of the most moving and powerful experiences of my life,” she added. “May we always remember and never forget. I miss you Saba.”

Gadot also told L’OFFICIEL she feels like she has “imposter syndrome” even though she’s been a lead in many successful films, including the Woman Woman franchise and the 2021 comedy thriller Red Notice, which had the biggest opening day viewing record in Netflix history.