Monday, December 22, 2008

Hiding and Seeking

Nazi-Era Płaszów Labor Camp

Image by P.J.S. via Flickr

A tremendously powerful movie, Hiding and Seeking is about an Orthodox man in Brooklyn who is determined to go to Poland to find the places (and the people) who made it possible for his father-in-law to survive WWII.

In doing so, he hopes to demonstrate to his 2 sons, who are committed to the Israeli yeshiva world that there are non-Jews who are good people. His concern about rising Jewish extremism that says that all non-Jews are evil is creating a closed-mindedness that is unacceptable is one of the driving forces.

The film is about 90 minutes in a documentary format and I found myself getting choked up at times, particularly when the family finds the location of the barn where one layer of hay was all that separated their father/grandfather from certain Nazi death.

The implication of that moment and place was palpable.

A very different, highly personal take on the Holocaust, it's worth the time.

 

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