The “Before” Faces of the Holocaust’s Children: A film made with Respect and Love

By Vivian Leber, WLCJ Personal Conversations Chair and WLCJ Board Member
The “Before” Faces of the Holocaust’s Children: A film made with Respect and Love

My husband, Mark, and I never knew our grandparents—all were Holocaust victims. My late father-in-law was one of only seven Holocaust survivors among 5,000 Jews in his town in Poland. That drew us, over Labor Day weekend, to view a critically acclaimed documentary, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, in Manhattan, which has won an award from Yad Vashem for Cinematic Excellence in a Holocaust Documentary.

This remarkable film had its origins in a grandson’s search for a home movie that he knew his late grandfather, David Kurtz, had made in August, 1938. When Glenn Kurtz found it in his parents’ closet in Florida, the 16 mm reel was in a state of advanced decay. Recognizing its historic significance as a visual record of ordinary people soon to disappear in the maw of the Holocaust, Glenn donated it to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which arranged to have it restored. He also tracked down clues from the film to research and write a book; through luck, he even found a survivor, a boy seen in the film, who helped to identify some of the townspeople.

The elder Kurtz had come to the US as a young child, prospered here, and returned on a grand tour of Europe. This included a visit to his birthplace, the small town of Nasielsk, in Poland. Using his new handheld movie camera, he recorded a silent film in color, which was intended, along with all footage from his tour, only for his private viewing. In the three-minute recording in Nasielsk, as the camera pans the buildings, some of the town’s 3000 Jews steal the scenes, mostly youngsters who tussle to be captured by the new-fangled gadget. We also see a big crowd spilling out from the town’s synagogue onto the street.

There are an infinite number of ways to retell the Holocaust and parse its meaning, and this film contributes a unique and moving record of that vast story. British Jewish film star Helen Bonham-Carter is the main narrator, interspersed with others, including Glenn. As the three minutes are closely dissected, we catch glimpses of the living spirit of those doomed souls. We learn of the Nazis’ invasion and tortuous capture of the town’s Jews, and their subsequent deportation, which occurs 16 months after they had stood, smiling, before the camera. Only 100 of the town’s Jews are known to have survived. My husband and I never grow tired of fresh new takes on personal Holocaust stories. We’re missing so many details of our own family story that this visual evidence through film feels to us as an homage to our own lost relatives.

I’m grateful that, through my role as Chair of WLCJ’s Personal Conversations, I was introduced in June to WLCJ Southern Region Treasurer, Marsha Raimi (West End Synagogue Sisterhood, Nashville, TN). Marsha told me about the film and explained her personal connections to it.

“In preparation for our 2018 trip to Poland with our husbands, my sister suggested that I read Glenn’s 2014 book “Three Minutes in Poland,” because our father was mentioned in it as having come from Nasielsk. This was a revelation to me. Dad was an Auschwitz survivor who spoke of it often and recorded testimony for the USC Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem, but he only ever talked about his town of Mlawa. I realized that his father (my grandfather) was born in Nasielsk and moved to Mlawa when he married. My grandmother’s last name was the same as the people in Nasielsk who owned the button factory described in the film. As in the movie, the details of my ancestors’ lives came to life for me, and I had to know more. I joined Glenn’s Facebook page for the descendants of Nasielsk’s Jews, and I began doing genealogical research. When the film premiered at Sundance, I watched it online. So when Glenn arranged two days of events related to the film’s premier this May in Poland, I felt compelled to return. Now, Holocaust remembrance, reconciliation with our former Polish neighbors, and prevention of future genocides is my mission.” To hear more of Marsha’s story, go to this podcast by her local Jewish newspaper: https://www.jewishobservernashville.org/our-podcast/conversation-with-marsha-raimi-journey-into-the-past. 

The documentary was written and directed by Bianca Stigter, who points out the power of the film medium to memorialize ordinary people—lost, not only to time, but in this case, also to horrific violence. Reviewers have given the film their highest ratings. Runtime is 72 minutes. Go to https://superltd.com/films/three-minutes-a-lengthening for the official trailer, reviews and current theatrical screenings. It is expected to be on several digital platforms beginning September 20th.

Shabbat Shalom,

Vivian Leber
WLCJ Personal Conversations Chair and WLCJ Board Member
vleber@wlcj.org