Line 41
color & b/w. 96+ min. In German & Polish w/English subtitles. Tanja Cummings, dist. by Film Movement, www.filmmovement.com. 2018. DVD UPC 859686006420. $24.95. HIST
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Line 41 is the streetcar that went through the large Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland, during the Holocaust. The streetcar is a symbol of the parallel lives of everyday passengers and the doomed victims apparent through the windows of the vehicle. Natan Grossman, a survivor living in Israel, returns to the site of the ghetto 70 years later to reminisce on the fate of his people, his family, and particularly his lost brother who disappeared during the war. Grossman ultimately finds striking documentation about his brother along with witnesses who remember his family and meets up with another resilient ghetto survivor. Perhaps the most unusual part of the film revolves around his interactions with the son of Jens-Jurgen Ventzki, the former Nazi head mayor of Lodz, who is only too aware of the evil done under his father's orders.
VERDICT A valuable introduction to the importance of survivor testimony in a way that is never pedantic or heavy-handed.
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