Elder Voices

David Goodman, who won an Oscar as a producer of Deborah Shaffer’s documentary Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements in 1985, interviewed nine residents at Medford Leas, a Quaker-affiliated senior living center in Medford, New Jersey, about their experiences during the Depression and World War II and edited their reminiscences, complemented by montages of stills, home movies, and archival footage, to fashion this film as a warning against the kind of hatred and bigotry that leads to persecution and violence. Some are Holocaust survivors, who describe not only the brutality Jews endured in Nazi-controlled Europe but the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism even in America, where legal restrictions severely limited the number who were allowed to enter the United States. Japanese-Americans recall how they were suspected of being threats to national security and forced into internment camps as a precautionary measure. Conscientious objectors explain that they were treated as pariahs by their fellow citizens and suffered mistreatment at the hands of authorities, while a veteran ruminates on the lasting trauma his wartime experiences, including time as a prisoner of war, have had on him. The stories are not, however, merely descriptive; the interviewees draw lessons from them that are applicable to the present when fear, intolerance, nationalism, and militarism are once again in the ascendant and can lead to the oppression of those looked upon as different. It is not surprising that they are active in movements to promote peace and understanding, and theirs are voices worth listening to and learning from. Recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (F. Swietek)