About the Documentary - "A film for the ages."

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" A film for the ages." - William Bernstein, The American  Society for Yad Vashem

A greatest source of the Holocaust comes from testimonies of survivors through memory reconstruction in documentary films.

Filmmaker Donna Kanter always wondered what happened after they rebuilt their lives with post-war children who inherited their trauma.  Did the children fill in the blanks if their parents could not speak about their experiences? Or were they informed by or inundated with harrowing images?

In Los Angeles, California, Fred Zaidman’s mother Renate spoke often of her pain but without vivid facts.  His father Wolf virtually shut down.  From the contradictions of too much emotional information and only scant clues, Fred lost a sense of belonging that disassociated him from his present. 

Now, Fred embarks on a journey to discover what had happened to his family in Poland during the Shoah.  His primary goal is to find a single photo of his grandparents. With only the will to push his limits, Fred constructs his family tree.  

Then, he is dropped into an unknown that will reconnect him to his past.  With helpers abroad, he begins to unshackle his own pain and construct his future.  Finally, from Atlanta, a Baptist minister leads Fred to a graveyard in Poland where he will rescue from oblivion a single family’s fate. 

And in his quest for details that endow his identity, Fred draws us into an experience that transcends the larger catastrophe – the will to live, to love.

Photo: Fred Zaidman's parents Renate and Wolf in the Bergen-Belsen, Germany DP Camp.  Renate is expecting her first son, Martin.