When you think of movies about the Holocaust, you tend to think of Schindler’s List. When you think of movies about the children involved in the Holocaust, you tend to think of Anne Frank.
Think again.
There are some things most people don’t know about this sad era of the 20th century, but HBO is debuting an Oscar-winning documentary that reveals a very touching–and haunting–side of the story of the youngsters involved in the ordeal. Youngsters who were saved.
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (debuting on HBO on Monday at 8 p.m. ET) explores one of the most obscure tales to come out of the Holocaust. Through recollections from survivors and their children, producer (and daughter of a Kindertransport survivor) Deborah Oppenheimer brings us an account of 1938’s little-known Jewish Kindertransport, the sparing of Jewish German children’s lives and the kids’ subsequent journey to Great Britain.
The title refers to the families that adopted the removed children–British families who opted to take in the formerly doomed kids. But there’s much more drama to the film than this.
Kristallnacht
In early November, 1938, Nazi soldiers ransacked Jewish communities in Germany and Austria. While much has been written about the destruction of local businesses, schools and even cemeteries, little has been documented about the fate of the children who were saved thereafter.
Into the Arms of Strangers offers up personal accounts of the events, explaining how the British Cabinet lobbied to offer aid to the children of the Jewish families that were headed to concentration camps, following the lead of Great Britain’s Lord Halifax. The Germans agreed.
New families
While it sounds hopeful, life for the Jewish children with their new British families was not pretty. Many parents treated their new adoptees as servants, remaining cold–almost vindictive–erasing the children’s identities, stripping them of their former religion. Once the war ended, many were thankfully reunited with the few remaining members of their German and Austrian families, though many lost their entirely families.
Deborah Oppenheimer
You really have to listen carefully to the words of this documentary. Oppenheimer’s accounts of her mother’s grief-stricken hesitation to talk about the Kindertransport are quite disturbing. Oppenheimer’s mother refused to talk about the events, even up until her mother died of cancer in 1993, leaving Oppenheimer parched for information. With the support of director Mark Jonathan Harris (Oscar winner for The Long Way Home), she eventually found the resources necessary to bring this story to fruition.
Strangers is a tough tale to watch and you have a hard time realizing that this really happened–kids’ lives were saved, but equally destroyed. The award winning documentary reruns on Sunday, Dec. 16 at 1:30 p.m. Click here to view our photo gallery for the film.
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