Educational Media Reviews Online

This splendid documentary contains powerful images of the now-aging Jews who were hidden as children by righteous Gentiles in Nazi-controlled Europe. Interviews, photographs, and archival footage of World War II are skillfully interwoven to create high drama in which the Jewish survivors and their very elderly rescuers tell their stories. If it was not crystal clear that the viewer is seeing real people telling real stories about what happened to them before, during, and after the Nazi takeover of Europe between 1938 and 1945, one might think (s)he was watching a gripping work of fiction like Schindler’s List (itself based on a true story).

Producer-director Slesin - herself a rescued child - discovered and interviewed a large number of European-born Jews who spent the war years either completely hidden from view or posing as members of Christian families. The rescuers undertook the deceptions to thwart the Nazis, who were intent on murdering every Jew in Europe. She also interviews the rescuers - sometimes an individual, sometimes entire families - who lend their own perspectives to the film. Slesin has woven her material into a nearly seamless whole, exploring the feelings of each of the people involved in the rescues as well as how the rescue was initiated and achieved, and what happened from the moment it began until the present. John Zorn’s music merits a word of praise here - it adds positively to the total impact.

The rescues varied widely. Some Jewish parents actively sought refuge for their children; sometimes the impetus came from rescuers who recognized how desperate the circumstances were and persuaded Jewish friends to give up their children. The children ranged in age from a few months to pre-teens. Some lived in the same homes throughout the war; others went from place to place when rescuers were unable or unwilling to keep them. Some were doted on; one said she was abused. Some were rescued alone, others with siblings. Some said the years with their rescuers were the best times of their childhood. Some rescuers said their years with the children were happy despite the dangers. Surprisingly, few parents revealed the true nature of what they were doing to children old enough to understand. Instead, they said nothing or made up stories about quick reunions - promises that, for the most part, those who perished in the Holocaust never could fulfill.

A few of the Jewish parents survived the war and reunited with their children. These families should have enjoyed the ultimate happy ending, but that did not happen. In every case, an indescribable sense of loss and abandonment continued to pervade the lives of the rescued children and shape their identities. Similarly, the rescuers speak of the pain and feelings of loss when the children left their care. All were sad that their contact ended abruptly and relationships were broken. The trauma continues to persist for both the rescued and the rescuers, to this day. Secret Lives is highly recommended for all collections supporting Holocaust studies, Jewish studies, history of the World War II period, the plight of refugees, and/or the psychology of child abandonment. The simple words expressed in the interviews and the images of the speakers’ faces tell a story that could fill much more than a thousand pages.