Date Watched: June 25, 2010
Source: Netflix Instant Play
[I guess I’ll call this “Documentary Saturday” since it’s Saturday and I’ve watched and am about to post 5 documentaries in a row.]
This was another side to the Holocaust that most people don’t learn about. I like how this film didn’t focus at all on the extermination, but the rescue of Jewish children by the Kindertransport.
About 10,000 children, mostly Jewish, were sent to British homes, farms, and hostels by their parents to wait out the war. As much as I’ve learned about the Holocaust, timelines are fuzzy for me, so I’m not sure that nine months prior to the outbreak of WWII it was clear the sheer horror that was to come. But what I do know is that while about 1.6 million children were murdered by the Nazis, there were a small few who were saved, and I think that’s just a bit of a miracle, considering how everything turned out. 5 years later, there were few reunions to be had, as most of the parents who had parted ways with their children were also murdered in concentration camps. The few reunions that did take place were painful for the parents, who missed huge chunks of their children’s lives, the children who had known other parents for 5 years, and the people who took those kids in and made them family for half a decade. It’s incredible to me how even in a miracle and what should have been a time of joy and thankfulness… could still contain so much pain.
The documentary itself was great… the story even greater.
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