Details
Movie Description
INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS, the stunning, heartrending documentary feature directed by Mark Jonathan Harris and narrated by Judi Dench, details the rescue of 10,000 German, Austrian, and Czechoslovakian Jewish children just prior to the outbreak of WWII. A labor of love for producer Deborah Oppenheimer, whose mother was part of the kindertransport, the documentary combines powerful testimonies from now elderly--kinder--with rare archival film footage. Following the Kristallnacht pogroms in November 1938, a mission began to remove Jewish children to the only nation willing to harbor them--England. Parents lucky enough to secure their children places had the heartbreaking task of packing a single suitcase and putting their child on a train, promising to follow soon after. Most of the parents, however, died in Hitler's concentration camps. In England, the kinder were faced with new problems--living with strangers who spoke another language, while simultaneously missing and feeling abandoned by their parents. Recounting their compelling, gut-wrenching stories, the pain is still raw for the elderly kinder--but they are survivors in every sense of the word. Their fortune, though traumatizing, is underscored by the film's final, sobering statistic: 1.5 million children perished during the Holocaust.
Synopsis
INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: STORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT, directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, who co-wrote the book of the same title with Deborah Oppenheim, is a documentary about Jewish children that were transported out of Nazi Germany to safety in England during the Holocaust. Narrated by Judi Dench, the film is a fascinating and emotional depiction of the process by which the kindertransport was organized--selecting children who were already in concentration camps or who were otherwise at high risk--to be placed with foster families in England during the war. In addition, the film includes interviews with people who survived the war because of the kindertransport, but who never saw their families again.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: September 15, 2000 (Limited)
Director Mark Jonathan Harris won an Academy Award in 1997 for his Holocaust documentary THE LONG WAY HOME.
By chance, the film's editor Kate Amend found an outtake from a newsreel showing one of the film's main interviewees, Lore Segal, stepping off the boat onto English soil as a child.
The film's producer, Deborah Oppenheimer, is the executive producer for THE DREW CAREY SHOW.
Narrator Dame Judi Dench won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1999 for her role in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.
Industry Reviews
"...The children, now mostly in their 70's, [recall] the overwhelming facts of their childhoods with simple dignity and heart-rending power..."
New York Times - p.E10 - A. O. Scott
"...For every grown child here there is a story, and each one is moving..."--3.5 out of 4 stars
USA Today - p.6E - Mike Clark
"...An affecting documentary about...a remarkable rescue mission..." -- Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly - p.53 - Lisa Schwarzbaum
"...INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS is a compelling grueling documentary....[The interviewees] convey the essence of their experience as no archive footage or voiceover can..."
Sight and Sound - p.51 - Stella Bruzzi
"...It's an especially moving and effective piece of work....A memorable experience..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan (09/15/2000)
Quotations
"I've come to a conclusion about myself. In 1938, I escaped deportation in Poland. I got out of Germany in the Kindertransport. I was meant to survive. When I look at my children and my grandchildren, I know that there was a purpose to my life." --Alexander Gordon.
"I ceased to be a child when I boarded the train in Prague. It's strange that it's only six years out of a long life--and those six years will affect you the rest of your life." --Eva Hayman
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