Arts Emanu-El to show the evocative documentary ‘After Auschwitz’ 

Director Jon Kean examines the question “What happens after surviving an unspeakable horror?” in the post-Holocaust documentary “After Auschwitz,” which will be shown at Temple Emanu-El on March 9.

The film follows six extraordinary women after their liberation from Nazi concentration camps. It is a study of what it means to move from tragedy and trauma toward life.   

Many Holocaust films end with the words “You’re free. Go home,” the same words that survivors heard when they were liberated. But “After Auschwitz” is not a typical Holocaust film: it begins with these words. 

To an American today, liberation sounds like it should have been a great day.

For survivors, liberation from the camps was often the beginning of a lifelong struggle. They wanted to go home, but there was no home left in Europe. If they came to America, and wanted to tell people about their pasts, they were silenced for over three decades. Survivors were told, “You’re in America now, put it behind you.”

The women in the film all moved to Los Angeles, married, raised children, had successful careers, and became “Americans.” However, they never truly found a place to call home. They didn’t fully heal from the scars of the past.  And what makes the story all the more fascinating is how these women saw, interpreted and interacted with the changing face of America in the second half of the 20th century. 

These powerful women serve as guides on an unbelievable journey, sometimes celebratory, sometimes heart-breaking, but always inspiring. Due to the rising waves of nationalism and anti-Semitism around the world today, this film is timely and resonates deeply.       

Fruma Spitzman, who was raised on the East Side of Providence, is among the women featured in the film, and she will be the speaker at the program on March 9. She was born at Bergen-Belsen, which, at the time of her birth, in September 1948, was a displaced person’s camp in Germany. 

Spitzman is the first-born child of the late Meyer and Rachel Spitzman, both Holocaust survivors. She and her parents waited at the camp until they received immigration papers. They traveled to Rhode Island in December 1949, with no family or home awaiting them.  

It was her mother’s death, and her subsequent grief, that led Spitzman on a journey to embrace a weighty bequest, the legacy of the second-generation survivor. She became the bearer of her parents’ memories, and she says this legacy was a gift. She promised herself she would never be silent again. After participating in the March for the Living – a program that brings people from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the Holocaust – Spitzman’s commitment to speak to groups and organizations was reenergized. 

Her local, regional and national Holocaust presentations continue to deepen her understanding of its emotional and psychological impact, as we learn in the film.DETAILS: Arts Emanu-El will present “After Auschwitz” on Saturday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m., at Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence. The movie will be followed by Spitzman’s talk. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door, and may be purchased at www.Teprov.org/Form/AfterAuschwitz.  Refreshments will be served.

PAM HANZEL is the chair of Arts Emanu-El.