University students will be blessed with yet another film during Hillel's 18th Annual "Conference on the Holocaust" (March 24-April 4) tonight. Directed by notable Jewish filmmakers of the time, Herbert Fredersdof and Marek Goldstein, "Long is the Road" marked the first dramatization to depict the Holocaust from a Jewish perspective.
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Long is the Road Today, 7 p.m. Natural Science Auditorium Free |
Despite the hardships the Polish Jew and his family must endure, the second half of the film is idealistically optimistic, as the family plans a future of peace and security in the Holy Land of Israel.
Becker, who founded the first professional Yiddish theater company in Germany, could easily relate to David Yelin (the character he represents).
In fact, one particular scene in the film was based on Becker's own experience. Anxious to flee from Russia, Becker boarded a train only to discover Nazi soldiers seeking Jews. He jumped from the speeding train just as it was rounding a corner. Becker, at 79, recalled his memory of acting that particular moment.
"When it came time to prepare the scene, I knew exactly how it should look, that it's best to wait until the train goes around the curve and slows down a bit. Then is the time to jump."
The Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the Hillel Foundation and the Program in Film and Video Studies are sponsoring the film, which has been newly restored in Yiddish, German and Polish with English subtitles.
Ira Konigsberg, University film and English professor, stressed the significance and influence of "Long is the Road."
"It is a very unique, powerful and important insight into how people respond to this catastrophe."
Only a few films were made immediately following the Holocaust, and after a period of a few years, there was what Konigsberg calls "sudden silence."
As a result, "Long is the Road" was locked away and forgotten for several decades until 1990, when The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University restored and distributed it.
A panel discussion will follow the movie, featuring Isaac Norich, survivor of two concentration camps and administrator of one of Europe's last displaced persons camps in Europe. Born in Poland during the first World War, he survived the ghetto in Lodz and the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau until he was finally liberated. Norich then spent the next 11 years in displaced persons camps in Germany.
A scene from "Long is the Road," the first feature film on the Holocaust.