Pola's March

Pola's March is a 2001 documentary made by Jonathan Gruber about a Holocaust survivor, Pola Susswein's emotional trip back to her childhood home in Poland after fifty years spent in Israel, trying to forget her painful past. “This Earth is soaked with blood,” Pola says, dispassionately. Her ability to stomach the harshest of realities - which allowed her to go on after the Holocaust, marry, raise children and live normally - is tested when she re... More

Pola's March is a 2001 documentary made by Jonathan Gruber about a Holocaust survivor, Pola Susswein's emotional trip back to her childhood home in Poland after fifty years spent in Israel, trying to forget her painful past. “This Earth is soaked with blood,” Pola says, dispassionately. Her ability to stomach the harshest of realities - which allowed her to go on after the Holocaust, marry, raise children and live normally - is tested when she returns to a place that brought her unimaginable suffering. Pola’s trip marks a dramatic shift in her mentality. After half a century, Pola, who never spoke about the Holocaust to her children, decides to travel back to Krakow with a bus full of high school and college students, lecturing and sharing her stories as they go. Her own children and grandchildren, curious about their family history and eager to offer support, join her as well. Before she takes off, Pola confides to the camera that she knows this trip will not be pleasant, but she...

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