Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A Reminder


This weekend, E and I saw Defiance at the theater. It's a true story about three brothers who banded together and led some 1200 Jews to safely during World War II. They hid in the forest for several years, protecting each other, fighting those that threatened their village, scavenging for food. They took any Jew in who sought their help and actively helped Jews in camps to escape. It was horrific for these people, especially during the winter months, but they survived. In fact, the last two years of hiding in the forest, a hospital,a school and even a theater were established in their forest village.

You can read more about this amazing, but basically unknown story here .

I thought the film was really good, if you can look past the fact that one of the Jewish brothers was Daniel Craig, who looks about as Aryan as they come. Before going into the movie, I assumed he would be one of the SS Officers or something. And then there is the fact that his brother, twin I believe is played by Liev Shreiber, who looks about as much alike as Cher and Queen Latifah. I also think the main characters weren't developed enough. One character does an unexpected thing in the end in my opinion and there was no hint to it whatsoever in the whole movie.

But, for what it was, it was eye opening and sad, but also gave me a renewed sense of human strength and endurance.

It occurred to me it has been since high school since I have read The Diary of Anne Frank, so I picked up the critical edition, which has three different versions of the translation, along with historical references and witness accounts. Its incredibly sad. I am reminded of how modern the world really was during this time. Its so hard to believe that something like this happened, and is still happening in places such as Darfur and in North Korea.

We must continue to keep praying for peace for this world and remain thankful that although our country has its shares of troubles, we still live in a society that embraces individuality and freedom.

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