Les Chemins de la liberté

During that relatively small window of time, prior to the beginning of Hitler's conquest of Europe, when exportation rather than extermination was still the prudent solution to the "Jewish Problem", a rescue plan called the Kindertransport was begun which provided for the relocation of Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia into Great Britain. INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS is a documentary that examines the Kindertransport program through the eyes of the participants. No broad social commentary here, just remembrances of parents that had to send their kids away to a foreign land and into the arms of strangers so that they might survive the Nazi barbarians. The difficulty of having to provide a whole life's worth of instruction to children just before those devastating last goodbyes. A little girl wondering why, just after Hitler annexed Austria, none of her long-time Austrian friends showed up for her eighth birthday party. Parents desperately trying to keep the harsh reality of Nazi occupation from the innocent little people oblivious to the evil of man. And once the children were safe in Britain, their desperate attempts to get sponsors for parents left behind and for those lucky enough to be re-united with family after the war, having to say goodbye once again, only this time to broken hearted foster parents. This documentary is made more effective by snap-shots of the children, archival footage of Nazi Germany during the late 1930's ( a veritable sewer of anti-Jewish destruction and propaganda), and in this context, the painfully frightening sound effects of broken glass, trains and the voices of children singing in German, which seem strangely perverted; an unfortunate consequence which Germans should never forgive the Nazi's.

"Into the Arms of Strangers", directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, is a loving account of what parents resort to do in order to save their children from a tragedy that was looming over Europe. Having missed this film when it was first released, we caught up with it in the DVD format that has been lovingly transferred to that medium.

The story of the "Kindertransport" is recounted by some of the children that participated in it. We watch them as they are today, and through pictures, and sometimes on those old newsreels and films where they are captured as children in Germany, and the countries where the prosecution of Jews took an ugly turn.

Our heart goes to some of these older people that speak with such dignity in spite of what was done to them and their families. It's a tribute to the people who tell us what happened to them in the way they express their experiences without venom, or malice. After all, these persons showcased in the documentary are all survivors, something that thousands other Jewish children didn't have the same fate.

One can only imagine what these individuals went through at such an early life, many without being able to speak English, or made themselves understood in the households that received them. Imagine a child separated from loving parents having to deal with a world gone mad. It speaks volumes the people that tells us their stories turned out to be the way they did!

Dame Judy Dench's narration works well in the context of the material being shown. Mark Jonathan Harris has made a valuable contribution to show the whole world how a mad man changed these children's lives, and their parents' forever.

This is a film that must be seen by your entire family. True, it's very disturbing, but it's one of the best films ever made about the horrors of war. Beautifully made, touching and moving, this is just a marvel. It should be shown every year on national television, to make sure that people never forget. Technically a marvel, there is not one thing wrong with this film, other than the fact that people haven't seen it.

"Into the Arms of Strangers" (2000): This is a documentary about parents who try to get their children OUT of the reach of Nazis (focusing on the "Kindertransport" system). Once in awhile a documentary comes along that is SO full of information you did not have, SO mesmerizing, and SO important to your understanding of the World, it is a must-see - for EVERYONE. Can you imagine what it is to send your children away…to…somewhere, not knowing what will become of them, and wondering if you shall EVER see one another again? Can you imagine being a young child, and as you're being put on a train for the escape, you scream to your parents (who are not going with you) that you must be adopted and they never did love you? Can you imagine being the child whose father, out of pure, illogical, last-second panic LOVE, pulled you back out of the moving train through the window, nearly killing you from the fall, and whose fates would then send you both to concentration camps? How would YOU and YOUR father DEAL with this, if you both "survived"? It uses excellent archival film (appears restored), beautiful scoring, artful editing, and lots of interviews (with surviving children and a few of their "foster parents"), make this an incredibly moving, horrific, inspiring experience. Really, you NEED to see "Into the Arms of Strangers".

A documentary about the Kindertransport, which sent many Jewish children in Central Europe to safety in Britain. The film is constructed from interesting and rare film footage and newsreels, German lullabies and folk songs, still photos,letters and drawings, representative objects, but, most importantly the recollections of many Kindertransport children, full of detail and emotion. In a certain part of the film ,lines from letters from the children to their parents are read and one of the letters which is read is that of my grandmother, a child on the Kindertransport herself. To me this film was a personally invigorating, touching, informative and sad experience . Recommended when it opens ( I saw it at the Warners screening room in N.Y before it opened because of my connection).