Shtetl

Shtetls ("little villages" in Yiddish) were home for centuries to many of Poland's Jews. After the Holocaust, Jews and Jewish identity had all but disappeared from the shtetl. Synagogues were now used as barns and Jewish grave-stones were torn up and used to replace pavements and millstones. This documentary concerns four men on a journey. One man is an American born Jew seeking his roots in the Polish shtetl of Bransk, another is a Holocaust survivor from the same village, a third is a Catholic resident of Bransk seeking to uncover the town's Jewish past. The narrator is a Jew from another shtetl who survived the war as a child by hiding in a Christian orphanage. Along the journey we visit exiles from Bransk now living in America, and follow two of the men to Israel as they reconstruct the shtetl's history, while grappling with questions of collective memory and guilt. The video provides ample evidence that anti-Semitism survives in Poland. Many Jews were betrayed by former friends and neighbors, old grudges die hard, and many Poles hold the Jews responsible for their fate. The story builds a bit of drama as Bransk prepares to celebrate an anniversary. Can the town acknowledge its Jewish heritage and begin a healing? The answer is no; ending the story on a discouraging but honest note. Occasionally slow moving but thoughtful and eloquent, this video deserves a place in any Holocaust collection. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)