Glenn Kurtz

You wouldn't think that three minutes of someone's grandfather's home movie would be enough material for a book. But it is. And if you read it, you'll see why.
Glenn Kurtz finds this tiny bit of a home movie shot in 1938 on an European trip and starts to ask questions about what is recorded in the film. It takes some time, but bit by bit, a whole world opens up. This is the world of a small Jewish town in Poland, just before the war, and most of the people in the film and in that town were murdered by the Germans. But a few survivied and helped to put the pieces of the story together. And for the majority that didn't survive, well, there is this book to tell a little bit of their story, so their names will be said and they won't be completely forgotten.… (plus d'informations)

Here is a treasure of a lost world! I saw the author Glenn Kurtz at the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge. He did a fascinating presentation about his grandparents' sightseeing trip to Europe in 1938, which included a trip to the town in Poland where David Kurtz had been raised and lived until emigrating to the US. Most of the 3000 Jewish residents were murdered by Germans and their homes and possessions stolen by the non-Jewish residents of the town, Nasielsk. The author's quest to identify the people of the town seen in a 3 minute home movie clip leads him all over the US, Poland, and Israel. He reconnects neighbors, friends, and family and even digs up his own roots in his noble quest.

The book is perhaps a bit too detailed, and names blur. The photos are heart wrenching as townspeople flock to the American's camera as the reader sees the gathering shadows behind them, the soon to be exterminated. The courage of the few who escape is overmatched by their neighbors, who do nothing to stop the slaughter and enjoy the tainted fruit with seemingly no guilt or regret.

This is an invaluable addition to Holocaust literature. All credit goes to the survivors as well as the writer, to dredge up the pain for the reward of seeing their loved ones again in a three minute film that is all but silent.… (plus d'informations)