In the recent Oscar winner The Long Way Home (VL-1/98), a hugely moving film which recounts the post-Holocaust plight of European Jews, brief mention is made of Her Majesty's Jewish Brigade--an all-Jewish battalion commissioned by the Brits relatively late in the War to fight against the Germans in Northern Africa and Italy. In Our Own Hands, an equally superb and affecting film, tells the Brigade's remarkable story in full using bountiful archival footage and interviews. The video describes the difficult birth of the Brigade in the face of continuing British opposition, and discusses its enormous significance to Palestinian Jews (as a strategic opportunity for building military muscle, among other benefits). The distinguished service of the 5,000 man combat unit in Northern Italy is chronicled (in somewhat too much detail for my taste). Perhaps the most dramatic and riveting part of the story, however, takes place at the end of the war. Assigned to assist with the relocation of Jewish refugees, the Brigade served as light and hope, mothers and fathers, community, rabbis, and providers to the ghostly, homeless survivors encountered in decimated towns and displaced person camps. This near-messianic role extended to daring, often miraculous, underground operations aimed at shepherding refugees southward and ultimately past the British blockade into Palestine. Disbanded by a disgruntled British War Office in 1946, the core of the Jewish Brigade would ironically return to Palestine to use the lessons learned in war in their own national fight for statehood. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (G. Handman)
In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in WWII
(1998) 85 min. $39.95 ($69.95 w/PPR) Chuck Olin Associates. Color cover. ISBN: 0-9638365-3-6. Vol. 13, Issue 4
In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in WWII
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