The survivor experience times six in Jon Kean's must-see documentary, AFTER AUSCHWITZ

As if the World War II Jewish Holocaust were not in itself awful enough, the continuing realization of what its few survivors (relative to the number of Jews killed) have experienced since their release from the death camps should bring any sentient/caring person up short.

First, there was the antisemitism  that greeted survivors immediately post-release. Then the need by almost everyone, Jews included, to bury the event and never talk about it.

Then, once the talk and the unfurling of its history began to occur -- via news footage, guarded and finally more open conversation, film and television documentaries -- the rise of the "denialists" claiming that the Holocaust never happened. Will the horror and shame never fucking end? Clearly not, as the subjects of this film realize by speaking out about the various genocides occurring before and after their own.

The fine and necessary documentary, AFTER AUSCHWITZ, by Jon Kean (the filmmaker is pictured above, center, with the six subjects of his film, three of whom are now deceased) joins last week's excellent doc, Nana, which addressed the life and history of but a single concentration camp survivor, as a kind of bookend pairing of a particular horror and its aftermath. Each film has much to say and says it well: Nana by showing us the mission of its main character, After Auschwitz via the varied experiences of six quite different women.

Mr. Kean's film bounces back and forth between its thoughtful, intelligent and somewhat positive-though-always-tempered-by-reality women who now have children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren of their own. (In one of the more interesting scenes, one woman examines briefly the great difference in attitude toward the Holocaust between a survivor's children and grandchildren.) We learn these women's history, a bit about their camp experiences, and much more about what happened, as in the doc's title, after the camp.

The post-Auschwitz career of these women spans everything from teacher and social worker to fashion designer and deli-ownership. One even became the nanny to the family of actor Ricardo Montalban. Their stories, while in themselves interesting enough, are made even more so by their ideas, their passion and their exploration of subjects such as the meaning of "home." What one woman has to say about this at the film's finale proves as deeply sad as anything you'll have heard in quite awhile.

One idea gleaned from another doc covered this past week, Lives Well Lived, is how very important one's attitude toward a particular thing can be. The attitudes in this doc run the gamut and seem to account in good part for how these women have responded to life post-Auschwitz.

One thing they all seem to agree upon is the importance of keeping the memory alive of what happened during the Holocaust. No less a personage than General Dwight Eisenhower, who helped liberate one of the camps, insisted that camera footage be taken on the spot in case, years from then, anyone should attempt to say that these things never happened. How smart and how prescient he was!

From Passion River Films and running but 82 minutes, After Auschwitz opened today, Friday, April 20, in New York City at the AMC Empire 25 and will hit a number of other location throughout the country in the weeks to come. Here in South Florida, it opens next Friday, April 27, in the Miami area at AMC's Aventura 24 and Sunset Place 24, and in Fort Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway. The following week, May 4, it will play Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters, and at the Movies of Delray and Lake Worth, and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 & Town Center 5. Click here or here and scroll down to view all currently scheduled dates, cities and theaters.

NANA: Serena Dykman's documentary about her Holocaust-survivor grandma is a keeper

The thing you're most likely to remember about NANA, both the movie and its main character, is the wonderful sense of humor possessed by the grandmother of the title: Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant, a truly grand old lady who was very smart, very human and very humane. One of the first things Nana tells us, puffing away, is this: "I survived Auschwitz; I'll survive cigarettes." Not long into this remarkable documentary, made by Nana's own granddaughter Serena Dykman (shown below) -- I found myself thinking, "This is one of the best, most explicit, deep and profound explanations by a Holocaust survivor that I have yet encountered." By movie's end, I felt even more convinced of this.

Once Ms Dykman put out word that she was making a documentary about her grandmother (shown above and below), much to her surprise she began receiving information from all over about the many filmed interviews featuring her grandmother -- who turns out to have been one of the earliest, most frequent and (for my money) the best public-speaker/survivor of the Holocaust that has existed. In addition to marrying and raising a family, Maryla dedicated her life to educating future generations on the importance of tolerance to ensure that what happened to European Jews in World War II would never happen again.

Ms Dykman has used wisely and well these many interviews in her documentary so that we come to know and appreciate Nana about as well as we possibly could over a mere 100 minutes and we come to love this woman, understand her and feel for what she endured -- while especially being cognizant of everything from survivor guilt to the post-Holocaust antisemitism this woman had to endure.

Late in the film she explains to one of her interviewers that the day she was finally "liberated" from the Nazis was the saddest of her life because the liberators themselves were clearly antisemitic -- and because there was no one still alive to be happy for her and welcome her back home. Who among us has ever experienced not only the horror of the Holocaust but, on top of that, this kind of "liberation"?

Over and over again, thanks to the keen intelligence, humor and humanity of this woman, we're treated to her ideas and remembrances, and there is not a one of them not worth hearing. Little wonder people whom Nana had met over the years still remember her so fondly and well.

Along the way we learn a little of the life of the filmmaker's mother, Alice (above, left, and below, right), as well as that of Serena's herself. At one very interesting point an interviewer asks Serena when she first knew and understood the Holocaust. The young woman makes a very clear distinction between the "knowing" of something and the later "understanding" of it.

Grandmother's history is, in its way, a knockout of a tale (for a time in Auschwitz, as someone who could speak Polish, German and even Latin, she acted as "translator" for a certain Dr. Joseph Mengele!), and it is a story that directly addresses our current (and seemingly forever) Holocaust deniers. When she talks about being asked by certain young people how, as a Jew, she could even have survived the camps, you may find your blood beginning to heat up. (She credits her survival mostly to luck.)

The movie may be a bit longer than necessary, especially when, at the finale, we hear everyone thanking Nana over and over again. Not that you will disagree with those thanks. Also, showing Nana reading from her diary/memoir, and then having either mom or granddaughter read the same passage may help make the documentary trans-generational, but it doesn't add much to the package itself, which is mostly--and rightly--Nana's show.

From First Run Features, Nana opens this Friday, April 13, in New York City at the Cinema Village, and, though I do not see any other theatrical playdates scheduled as yet, coming as it does via FRF, there will surely be digital and DVD opportunities down the road.