The Peretzniks
This touching documentary from New York-based, Polish-Jewish filmmaker Slawomir Grünberg (
Saved By Deportation, The Legacy of Jedwabne) tells the story of a celebrated Jewish day school in Lodz.
Established after the war to try and resurrect Jewish life in Poland, the school closed in 1968 when an anti-Semitic campaign led to a wave of emigration that scattered pupils and their families around the world.
The students were inevitably the children of survivors - Jews who had stayed on after the pogrom of Kielce in 1946 - and for whom their school was a haven from dark undercurrents in Polish society.
It is a story of bitter-sweet emotions, related from the point-of-view of the pupils, some of who never fully said goodbye to Poland or to their beloved schoolmates and inspirational teachers.
Grünberg gathers the diaspora of its alumni - among them, Daniel Libeskind, the distinguished architect of Berlin's celebrated Jewish Museum - to create an unforgettable view of Jewish life in Poland.
