The Presence of Their Absence

Fred Zaidman’s parents were Holocaust survivors who settled in America. His mother Renate spoke in a general way of her painful memories, but his father Wolf held everything in, and Zaidman always refrained from asking more about their experiences. After both died, however, Zaidman felt a deep need to investigate his family’s history. Beginning with genealogical research through available channels, Zaidman traveled to Poland and later Israel to seek out relatives, search local records, and visit neighborhoods where his parents and grandparents had lived, as well as cemeteries where his ancestors might be buried, and the death camps where members of his family had been killed. His particular goal was to locate photographs of his grandparents and establish a firm family tree. Filmmaker Donna Kanter followed Zaidman on his quest, capturing both his bouts of enthusiasm as he met distant relatives for the first time and uncovered scraps of new information, and his occasional bursts of irritation as leads proved useless (many addresses, for example, took him to modern buildings) and even anger, as when he found tombstones defaced with Nazi symbols. Zaidman’s search eventually brought him to Atlanta and Steven D. Reece, a Baptist minister who leads the Matzevah Foundation, which is dedicated to restoring Jewish cemeteries in Poland. Zaidman returned to Poland with Reece and made a gratifying discovery. Telling the story of one man’s emotional odyssey to come to terms with the horrors that his family suffered during the Holocaust, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)