Image
Before My Eyes – A History Of Jewish Life In Poland Before The Holocaust: 25Th
Anniversary Special Edition
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B
Poland and The Jewish Experience. They will always be tied together. When Stanley Kubrick was going to make The
Aryan Papers, it was about an older sister and younger brother trying to
escape persecution in Poland by pretending to be Aryan while others are being
shipped to concentration camps and doing it in part with faked versions of the title
item. That is usually how we think of
that relationship, but many do not know about just how rich and vital Jewish
culture in the country was and how responsible Jews were for building the
country before Nazis and the Soviets et6hnically cleaned so much of it. Image Before My Eyes – A History Of
Jewish Life In Poland Before The Holocaust (1980) is a remarkable and
never-long-enough documentary that recreates the period with astounding
footage, stills, sounds and music.
Why this aspect of history is still being suppressed is
very disturbing and proves once again that one should never underestimate
worldwide anti-Semitism. Ironically, at
a time when we see religion all the time and it is usually Islam as always bad
and Christianity as infallible no matter how many extremists get to “moralize”
about it and use it to justify insane policies, this “religion freedom” manages
to still oppress all other forms of faith.
It is particularly insidious in relation to Judaism at a time when
Israel is one of our greatest allies that new kinds of anti-Semitism are on the
rise.
As I watched Joshua Waletzky’s documentary, I saw a huge
missing link to how the world got to where it did, reminding this critic of the
axiom that a past forgotten will be repeated.
Yes, pieces of this past have surfaced on the many other Holocaust
documentaries we have been able to cover on the site, but this is particularly
full, rich and direct in a way that is sadly lacking everywhere else, intended
or not. Other countries had Jewish cultures
this rich, but for so many reasons too numerous to go into here, the Nazis
targeted Poland for very intentional reasons (as the film The Gleiwitz
Case, a review up next, shows) because of their worldwide hunt to
destroy Jewish culture. This film saves
the invasion for the last act, spending most of its time recreating a rich,
peaceful culture that had its problems, but should have been left alone. But then, some people just cannot help
themselves in not minding their own business and ruining everything, reminding
us hate exists on many planes. Don’t
miss this reissue.
The 1.33 X 1 image is from an old analog transfer of the
original film, starting with the yellowing of the white print on black opening
credits. This does not allow the DuArt
color to thrive like it usually would, though if any print is available in at
least this good of shape for the digital HD version, we are all in good
shape. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is
really boosted mono with some background noise, but sounds fine for its age and
is not too many generations down.
Extras include text info about the companies involved, the director, a
terrific study guide booklet inside the DVD case and solid audio commentary by
director Waletzky. It is especially
good in dealing with the aspects of Judaism, which is the whole purpose of the
film, but I actually after all of this still wanted to know more about the
technical aspects including the story behind the older film footage. Image Before My Eyes just gets better
with age.
- Nicholas Sheffo
