Birthplace (1993)

Run Time - 47 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Clarke Fountain

Fifty years after director avel Lozinski and his mother escaped the Jewish Holocaust and their tiny Polish village, he returns to the place which brought about the extermination of all his many relatives. There, he interviews those who were there during the war, looking for memories of their lives then, and discovers what they did (and did not) do to help the beleaguered Jews who were their neighbors, business partners, and friends. Since many of those interviewed undoubtedly were personally responsible for many deaths, their latter-day ordinariness becomes, when subjected to close scrutiny, something quite chilling. This very short documentary may be particularly difficult to watch, but it underscores a necessary lesson on the ordinariness and pervasiveness of evil.