Lost for decades, 3 minutes of pre-Holocaust life becomes a full-length documentary

[Behind the Aegis]

Out on August 19, a new film, ‘Three Minutes – A Lengthening,’ by Dutch filmmaker Bianca Stigter, looks in depth at recovered footage of a Polish town prior to its devastation

In 1938, David Kurtz, a Polish-born Jew who came to the United States as a child, took his wife on a “grand tour” of Europe. A successful businessman, he brought along with him a brand new movie camera.

In between typical stops like Paris and Rome, he visited Nasielsk, the small village where he had grown up. Nasielsk had a significant Jewish population (over 40 percent of the town) and a thriving community. The day he visited, people were out in full force, eager to show off due to the novelty of the camera.

Kurtz shot a little over three minutes of footage, trying to capture the buildings of his youth, but the people — fortunately, in retrospect — kept getting in his way. Then he packed up and went to his next destination. The film lingered in storage for decades, untouched.

What Kurtz never realized was that he captured one of the last moments of vibrant Jewish life in this part of the world. Months later, all of Nasielsk’s Jews were rounded up, sent to ghettoes and, eventually, extermination camps. Very few survived the war.

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[BigDemVoter]

1. Wow. . . . Powerful.

Anytime I see something like this, I just look at their faces and wonder if they had any inkling at all what was in store for them.

There is footage available that was filmed in the ghetto in Warsaw that just shows random shots of starving children and a cart picking up dead people.

So many terrible things have happened because of ignorance & bigotry. My grandmother came to the USA from Poland in the 1920s-- she was very, very fortunate to have had the means to do so. She lost her mother & sister without ever knowing their exact fates. I know for a fact that this really bothered her. When she had dementia prior to her death in 1977, she would speak to them both in Polish and ask them where they were. . . It was really sad.

[Karadeniz]

3. And to not teach what evil people can do, everywhere and throughout history, because they

become uncomfortable... absurd. Teaching this can help us not do things now and in the future that we would be ashamed of.

[Martin68]

2. Very sad that a short film is all the is left of that vibrant community.

[murielm99]

4. Some years ago,

I saw a brief film clip of Anne Frank. She was opening a window in an apartment. It was very short. I watched it over and over, knowing her fate and enjoying her free behavior before that fate overtook her.

[spike jones]

5. Mala's Cat by Mala Kacenberg

This is where USA is headed unless we stop the Fascists Christians.


[link:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58437933-mala-s-cat|

"The incredible true story of a young girl who navigated dangerous forests, outwitted Nazi soldiers, and survived against all odds with the companionship of a stray cat.

Growing up in the Polish village of Tarnogrod on the fringes of a deep pine forest, Mala Szorer had the happiest childhood she could have hoped for. But at the age of twelve, as the German invasion begins, her beloved village becomes a ghetto and her family and friends reduced to starvation. She takes matters into her own hands and bravely removes her yellow star, risking sneaking out to the surrounding villages to barter for food.

It is on her way back that she sees her loved ones rounded up for deportation, and receives a smuggled letter from her sister warning her to stay away."

[spike jones]

6. How Do You Kill 11 Million People? by Andy Andrews.

[link:https://www.amazon.com/How-You-Kill-Million-People/dp/0849948355|

I was 14 years old when I fully realized what the Holocaust was about. It was when Eichmann was caught, and I then read the books, Auschwitz by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli and Night by Elie Wiesel, which just traumatized me. Here is an interesting read about the Holocaust and what is happening today. “How Do You Kill 11 Million People” by Andy Andrews.

“In everything he writes, Andy offers perspective that leaves you seeing your world and your life in a completely different way. He mines history for examples and then applies what he has learned to his readers’ lives...”
“Through the lens of the Holocaust, Andy examines how Hitler was able to get eleven million people to march to their deaths with so little resistance. In short, he lied to them. And, sadly, they believed it. If the truth is what sets us free, we need to ask what it means to live in a society where truth is absent, where we are routinely lied to by politicians of both parties, Wall Street, and the media. What is at stake? Can we survive in such a culture of deception? Our only hope, Andy argues, is an informed citizenry that demands truth at every level—first from themselves and second from their leaders. We must be able to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies, and hold those who lie accountable.
This is a short book. You can literally read it in less than an hour.

“The Holocaust resulted neither from a confluence of circumstances beyond human control nor from history’s inexorable march. It happened because ordinary people failed to stop it.”