Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786304462676 Format: Closed-captioned ISBN: 6304462670 Label: WGBH Boston Manufacturer: WGBH Boston Number Of Items: 2 Publisher: WGBH Boston Release Date: 2000-03-28 Running Time: 180 Studio: WGBH Boston Theatrical Release Date: 1996-04-17
Editorial Reviews:
The true story of Bransk, a small Polish shtetl that died overnight when all its Jewish residents were transported to Treblinka's gas chambers. A haunting story with tragic consequences emerges through interviews, photographs and personal stories.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Looking for your past identy and being surprised by what you discover! Comment: This is a film where all parties are trying to understand and come to terms with their past and having to settle for what they discover. The film maker, Marian Marzynski, a native of Warsaw Poland from before the beginning of WW2 whose mother hides him in a convent to save and protect him from the Nazi's. As an adult, he trys to deal with and understand his Jewish Hertiage through an older searching American whose family comes from a small Polish Shtetl in Bransk, a town that prior to WW2 had 60% Jewish population and lived a prospious and commercial life in this town. Today not a trce of their existence exists.
Marzynski can't deal with his own past directly, but alines with an intelligent 70 year old man who's at the end of his life but wants to learn and understand what Jewish Life was like prior to the Nazi's in this Polish Shtetl, and in particular for his family who is no longer alive. He writes letters to the municipality in Bransk and receives letters with answers from a non- Jewish Bureauacrat who is 29 years old and is a self professed Historian on Jewish Life that remains within this town that presently, has no Jewish population.
Mr. Kaplan along with the film maker Marzynski go to Bransk to visit this young Polish Bureaucrat and begin tracing extinced Jewish life.
This relationship evolves into coming back to Chicago, visiting Kaplan who arranges contacts within the United States of former residents of Bransk. One interesting fact that emerges is entrance to a closed Jewish Community is now openned to this young Polish Breauacrat, and he is along with the film maker welcomed into peoples homes and this painful past is explored; d How Jewish Life was Once upon-time lived.
The two Polish natives later visit Israel at a time where a grathering of former Bransk residents are gathering and holding remmembrances services. After the services, the Young lad is introduced to the Rabbi and he shows him pictures of fallen grave stones and he asks "What is the proper proceedure to replace the broken and fallen grave stones". The Rabbi replys that "it is enough of a Mitsva to just stand up the fallen stones and not important if they are properly replaced."
There is a very weried ending to this journey, which I will not disclose.
I found this film very interesting in understanding maybe a little bit of the preversities of human nature and maybe some of its contridictions! Customer Rating: Summary: A Rendition of the Usual Anti-Polish Biases Comment:
Marian Marzynski has produced a long and tedious film that not only exhibits a pronounced anti-Polish slant, but fails to inform the viewer about the proper context of the tragic events that took place. A much better and objective source of information about Shtetl life, in my opinion, is Eva Hoffman's book Shtetl.
The content of Marzynski's film is so strongly Judeocentric that the viewer is almost made to think that nothing happened during WWII except the destruction of Jews. The viewer gets no hint of the fact that Poland, which had fallen to the Nazi German and the Soviet Communist aggression, was to suffer the loss of 3 million gentile lives in the hands of the Germans alone. Not a word is mentioned about the large number of Poles (and also some Jews) who had been deported from the Bransk area to horrible deaths in the Soviet gulags, partly the outcome of the large-scale collaboration of local Jews with the Soviets.
Marzynski presents other content in a tendentious manner. For instance, a scene depicts anti-Jewish prejudices in the form of a Polish peasant who supposes that Jews have lots of money. The viewer gets no idea of the economic disparities that had arisen between Poles and Jews, partly the result of centuries of a cozy relationship between Jewish merchants and the foreign rulers of Poland after the Partitions. And, of course, no mention is made of the fact that many Jews had equally distorted (not to mention also negative) views of Poles as that Polish peasant had of Jews.
Marzynski pays a great deal of attention to a small group of Poles who collaborated with the German Nazis against Jews. This completely ignores the fact that Poland had a much lower collaboration rate than most other European countries. Moreover, it ignores the sad fact that the biggest assistants to the Germans in the roundup and sending of Jews to their deaths were none other than the Jewish collaborators-especially the notorious Judenrat.
Marzynski presents a scene involving modern Israeli students. Judging by their questions and the tone and content of their anti-Polish accusations, one is struck by their frightful ignorance of basic historical facts. Not only do they have no idea of what Poles went through: They almost seem to think that Poles lived in freedom and prosperity during German rule. The tenor of Marzynski's scene involving Israeli students is corroborated by the kind of questions asked of Poles by visiting Israeli high school students (e. g., "What kind of pensions are those Polish guards of Auschwitz getting?"). The informed viewer cannot help but ask questions such as the following: "Who is teaching Israeli children such venomous bigotry against Poles?" "Denial of the Holocaust is not tolerated, so why are such Polonophobic prejudices tolerated?" "What kind of portent do the warped attitudes exhibited by Marzynski's sample of Jewish students have for present and future Polish-Jewish relations?"
Customer Rating: Summary: Anti-Semitism Comment: I've a watched everything I can get my hands on about the Holocaust (and no, I'm not Jewish.) I think the film showed exactly why the extermination camps were located in Poland. It was the only country that would let them get away with it and, it appears, things are not so different now. Customer Rating: Summary: A distortion of history Comment: People need to be made aware of history. 'Shtetle' is Marzynski's attempt to make us aware of his version of history - obviously a version in which the Polish inhabitants of Bransk are the 'bad guys' and Jewish inhabitants are the 'good guys'. I believe that most viewers - inside the US and outside - are above such simplifications. Marzynski's film insults the viewer by distorting history. History education can and should do without such vain attempts. Customer Rating: Summary: Fascinating for Anyone Researching Jewish Roots in Poland Comment: I found this video very informative and recommend it to anyone doing research into their Jewish/Polish roots. However, the narrator of the documentary is clearly not objective in his approach to the subject and concentrated too much on villifying the Polish inhabitants of Bransk. It would have been a better film had he concentrated more on the jewish history of Bransk and shtetls like Bransk. In fact, I was a bit concerned when the narrator was antagonistic towards the young Polish researcher whose work forms the basis of the movie. The Polish researcher seemed clearly upset by the narrator and, frankly, it was uncomfortable to watch the narrator attempt to make this one Polish man responsible for the behavior of his ancestors. The antagonism could result in the cessation of research. This would be an incredible loss since I believe there is still much to learn about the lives of our ancestors who lived for so many generations in Poland.
