There Once was a Town

The former Polish shtetl (small town) of Eishyshok once boasted a vibrant Jewish culture which endured for some 900 years in the face of adversity...until the German army invaded in 1941, quickly rounding up and massacring most of the 3,500 Jews (the rest fled to remote farms and forests). Today, the marketplace and synagogue stand silent and empty, and not a single Jew remains in the shtetl. Based on Yaffa Eliach's book There Once Was a World, and narrated by Ed Asner, this powerful, moving documentary, which records the journey of Eliach and other survivors as they return to Eishyshok over 50 years later, is not strictly about the Holocaust, but rather a celebration of shtetl life and a measure of what was lost. Each survivor comes with a different mission: One man wants to find and thank a Christian woman who sheltered him on her farm; another survivor searches for his father's grave; and yet another tries to locate and reclaim a family Torah he hid from the Nazis. Finally, Eliach hopes to confront some local men she believes murdered her mother and younger brother. Of course, life is too complex for simple, happy endings, and the viewer comes to realize that anti-Semitism remains just below the surface in today's Eishyshok. Magnificent photographs, sterling film footage, and a rich musical score adds to this haunting chronicle of the "vanished world" of shtetl life. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P.(S. Rees)