Memory After Belsen begins as a tale of 30-year-old Robyn Thaler Hickey’s search for connection to her late grandmother and the latter’s harrowing experiences during WWII of being shuttled from one extermination camp to another and then finally surviving Bergen-Belsen. But that’s just the beginning of filmmaker Shiva Kumar’s ambitious documentary, which really focuses on the question of how civilization hangs onto the memory of the Holocaust over time as eyewitnesses die. The film explores various efforts to tell and retell the horrors of those events through diverse agents: survivors and their descendants, museum directors, historians, artists, and more. The challenges of reconciling different subjective accounts and conflicting details are also covered, as well as some fascinating post-war chapters (accompanied by remarkable archival footage) about the significance of displaced persons camps, the rebirth of Jewish community and tradition, and the founding of Israel. Kumar probes important questions about what and how we will tell future generations about the Holocaust, so that humanity never forgets. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Memory After Belsen
(2019) 73 min. DVD: $19.99. DRA. Vision Video (avail. from most distributors, Oct. 15). Volume 34, Issue 5
Memory After Belsen
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