Unzere kinder

Our Children (Yiddish: אונדזערע קינדער, Unzere kinder; Polish: Nasze dzieci) is a 1946 semi-documentary Yiddish-language film created in Polish People's Republic. It was directed by Natan Gross and Saul Goskind based on the script by Rachel Auerbach and Binem Heller.[1] Its frame story is the interaction of Jewish orphans who survived the Holocaust with popular Polish comic duo Dzigan and Shumacher[2][3] After the premiere the film was banned in Poland.[1][4] In 1951 an English-language dubbing was released under the title It Will Never Happen Again,[5]

Film history

It was one of the first films about the Holocaust and probably the first one to deal with the issue of "correct" representation of the post-Holocaust trauma.[6] Marc Caplan of Johns Hopkins University describes the film genre as "mixing satire, idyl, Holocaust testimony, and expressions of defiant hope". Described as "semi-documentary", much of the film is fictional,[1] including children's Holocaust reminiscences.[7]

One of the child survivors starring in the film is Shimon Redlich.[8]

In 1979 the original nitrate print was discovered and the film was restored by 1991, with English captions added.[9]

Plot summary

A group of Jewish orphans who survived the Holocaust, on a trip from their orphanage attend a show of Dzigan and Shumacher who staged a comic skit named "Singers of the Ghetto", as two beggars singing and dancing for food. Disagreeing with the portrayal of ghetto life, they heckle the show. Later they invite the comics to their orphanage so that they can tell then the true story. The comics accept the invitation and present there their best shows. At night they overhear children telling each other stories of their life. Next day they suggest children to present their own plays...[10][4]

References
  1. Marc Caplan, "Too Soon? Yiddish Humour and the Holocaust in Postwar Poland", In: Laughter After: Humor and the Holocaust, 2020, p.47
  2. Ira Konigsberg, "Our Children and the Limits of Cinema: Early Jewish Responses to the Holocaust", Film Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1 (1998), pp. 7-19, doi:10.2307/1213354
  3. אונדזערע קינדער" (הילדים שלנו) - במאים: נתן גרוס ושאול גוסקינד", a review at Yad Vashem
  4. "Tadeusz Lubelski: Kino żydowskie w Polsce. Michał Waszyński i inni"
  5. It Will Never Happen Again at IMDb
  6. Daphne Dolinko, טראומה וייצוגיה בקולנוע האידי בפולין, 1949-1924 Trauma and its representation in Yiddish cinema in Poland, 1924-1949]
  7. Ian Biddle, "Music, Sound, and Affect in Yiddish-Language Holocaust Cinema: The Posttraumatic Community in Natan Gross's Unzere kinder (1948)", Music and the Moving Image, 2018, 11(3):40,JSTOR 10.5406/musimoviimag.11.3.0040 (draft online)
  8. Summer Symposium on the Holocaust Screens 1948 Film Unzere Kinder Followed by Discussion with Child Survivor and Cast Member Shimon Redlich live from Israel
  9. "Our Children / Unzere Kinder", National Center for Jewish Film
  10. Ute Wölfel, "The ‘lost child’ as figure of trauma and recovery in early post-war cinema: Fred Zinnemann’s The Search (1948) and Natan Gross’ Unzere Kinder (1948)", Studies in European Cinema, Vol. 18, 2021, Issue 2, 159-175, doi:10.1080/17411548.2019.1615188

Further reading
  • J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, pp.330,331
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