by Father Robert Lauder

IN THE COURSE on philosophy and film that I give at St. John’s University I try to help the students analyze films both in terms of the theme or message and also in terms of how the theme or message is presented.

A film may have a wonderful theme and a profound message, but the theme or message may be very poorly presented. What those who made the film wanted to say was fine, but their film did not say it well.

The opposite can also happen: a theme or message may be superficial or even seriously erroneous but an enormous amount of artistic talent may have been employed in producing the finished product.

In my course at St. John’s I try to show films that have a profound or beautiful theme that is successfully captured by those who have created the film. I am grateful that there are many such films. There are films that are masterpieces.

Every year that I teach the course I show a clip from Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker, a film that powerfully presents the evil of the Holocaust. The students seem to be deeply moved by the scene I show. Each time I view the scene, I am reminded of what a terrible evil the Holocaust was. This has been on my mind recently because of an excellent documentary which is scheduled to air on HBO on Monday, April 8.

Narrated by Alan Alda, the documentary tells an amazing story of love and sacrifice. The title of this one-hour film is 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus.

In 1939, the treatment of Jews in Europe under the leadership of Adolf Hitler was becoming more and more inhuman. A man in Philadelphia, Gilbert Kraus, decided he wanted to do something to help his fellow Jews. Apparently Kraus was a person who, once he decided that there was some action that should be performed, was determined to do that action. He persuaded his wife Eleanor that she should accompany him into Nazi-occupied Europe in order to save some Jewish children from the concentration camps and ultimately death.

Not Saints, Ordinary People

The Krauses’ granddaughter appears in the documentary and says that she does not wish to paint her grandparents as saints. The documentary presents the couple as ordinary people who performed an extraordinary act. It was an act of enormous courage and, I think, of love.

Gilbert Kraus’ plan was to get 50 visas that he could use to bring 50 Jewish children from Europe to the United States. His plan worked. Who can tell the exact number of children who were killed because of Hitler’s insane war against Jews? We know of 50 who were saved because two people decided to do the right thing.

The presence of the Krauses’ granddaughter in the documentary can remind us that we are not viewing a fictional story, but rather the reporting of events that actually happened. The presence in the film of some of the children who are still alive, now mature adults, is very touching.

Of course, the parents of the children who went to the U.S. must have been marvelous people, ready to sacrifice their own happiness so that their children might survive. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for them to hand over their children to the Krauses.

There is one scene in the film that I found especially moving. A woman tells how hard it was to say goodbye to her mother who allowed her to leave for the U.S. She reports how her mother gave her advice on how to act in the new country, how she wanted her to work hard at her studies and that she would join her in the U.S. shortly. The woman speaking pauses and then says, “I never saw her again.”

Another affecting moment concerns a young boy who was chosen to go on the trip but at the last moment could not go because he is sick with the measles. A photograph of the young man is shown and it is revealed that three years later he died in a concentration camp.

I marvel that this one-hour documentary has such power and is so inspiring. I think of the millions and millions of dollars that are spent to make some films, films that all too frequently do not have anything insightful or enriching to say. Relying mostly on lines from Eleanor Kraus’ diary and photographs, the creators of 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus have made an extraordinary film – one that is deep, insightful and challenging.

I highly recommend tuning into the documentary on April 8 at 9 a.m.[hr] Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press.