|
The Long Way Home is a documentary that is available on DVD through Netflix and for purchase on the net.
There is very little public knowledge of what happened between the time when the German concentration camps were liberated in 1945 and when Israel was founded. The story is told in this very well done and interesting documentary.
First, many of the survivors were kept in the same camps under armed guard by Allied soldiers. Reports got back to President Truman about the conditions, and he sent an envoy to find out what was happening. The envoy reported about back the horrible conditions, and as a result, Eisenhower was pressured to fire Patton, who had responsibility for the camps. The movie then quotes Patton's private diary, which shows that he was an extreme racist against the Jews.
Many people survived the camps initially, but died in the next month because of disease or over-eating.
Then some Jewish survivors tried to return to their hometowns in Poland and elsewhere. Many survivors were murdered by local people. In some cases, new families had moved into their homes, and didn't want the refugees reclaiming them. (Most Jews in the concentration camps were not actually from Germany, but were from countries that the Germans had control over.)
The Jewish survivors then tried to reach Palestine/Israel. The British refused to let them. The movie said part of the reason was that the British needed Arab oil.
Many survivors climbed over the Alps on foot to try to reach Israel through Italy. A group of American Jews purchased and manned ships to try to sneak the survivors into Israel. Almost all were intercepted by the British and turned back. The most famous ship was the Exodus, which was the subject of a famous book and movie. The British actually fired upon the refugee ship and killed many people. The British kept many of the refugees in concentration camps in horrid crowded conditions.
Jewish groups then turned to terrorism to try to force the British out of Palestine. It worked, and the British left. The British turned the matter over to the UN, who tried to partition Palestine. That led to the founding of Israel. The movie said that a main reason why Israel was successful was because Truman officially recognized the new country instantly, against the advice of all of his advisors. (Throughout the entire 1940s, the US State Dept. was very anti-Semitic.)
For those people with a weak stomach (including myself), it is important to know that the movie is not overly graphic and, on the whole, is not depressing. It is intended to tell the story of people who struggled and succeeded against all odds.
-----
Here's excerpts of a review by the New York Times' film critic:
"Enormously powerful archival scenes punctuate the Holocaust documentary "The Long Way Home," giving an intimate dimension to the film's historical drama. Frankly Zionist in its sympathies, Mark Jonathan Harris's stirring and accomplished film spans the period from the liberation of Nazi concentration camp survivors in 1945 to the founding of Israel as a Jewish homeland three years later, emphasizing the profound connection between these events. Along the way, Harris creates an intense empathy for the refugees' experience and for aspects of their ordeal that are often ignored.
Early in the film, shocking scenes of survivors at the camps are accompanied by a description of the liberating soldiers' reaction to what they saw. "Few are prepared for the hell they encounter," says Morgan Freeman, the film's narrator, with dignity and compassion. (Other actors, among them Edward Asner, Miriam Margolyes and Martin Landau, are heard reading from diaries and letters.) Survivors talk of how the soldiers' horror triggered their own shame, and of how much unexpected anger surrounded their liberation. The film scenes accompanying this description are raw and startling, like one that shows the starved ex-prisoners rioting over a truckload of potatoes.
Some ate so ravenously that their stomachs ruptured. Others succumbed to disease and exhaustion. And a different kind of suffering awaited those who recovered their physical stamina. Survivors speak of being shunned by outsiders who did not want to contemplate what they had been through. "We were hated," one says, "because we returned from the dead."
But returned to what? "The Long Way Home" traces the sad progress of people realizing that their houses and families were gone and that their European homelands no longer wanted them. Many remained in displaced persons camps, and the film's arduous research offers glimpses of conditions there. "We are living like a litter of puppies crowded under the body of their mother," one woman wrote of that ordeal.
There are also remarkable scenes of refugee groups trekking over the Alps, carrying babies, in hopes of reaching safety in Palestine. The film strongly maintains that only the goal of a Zionist state could have given such demoralized people the strength they found. Meanwhile, "The Long Way Home" retraces British political opposition to the founding of a Jewish state and Jewish terrorism against British colonial rule. "
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
