“Among Neighbors” humanizes a Jewish family during the Holocaust in Poland, showing viewers that the Jews who were killed or who had atrocities committed against them were not just numbers. This true story takes place in the small town of Gniewoszów where all signs of its once-vibrant Jewish life have vanished. Even the tombstones from the destroyed cemetery were stolen, erasing nearly every trace of Jewish life there. Decades after the Holocaust, award-winning American filmmaker Yoav Potash unearths the haunting mysteries of this town, revealing the complex interplay of love and hatred that shaped the lives of local Poles and their Jewish neighbors.
The town’s oldest residents, now in the twilight of their lives, break decades of silence, sharing secrets they have carried for a lifetime, that Jews were murdered by Poles after WWII. Before the war, Jews and Polish Catholics lived side by side for centuries. The film brings the Polish response to the Holocaust to life through the last living eyewitnesses, revealing both love and betrayal as it zeroes in on one of the last living Holocaust survivors from the town, and an aging eyewitness who saw Jews murdered there, not by Nazis, but by her own Polish non-Jewish neighbors.
A bonus is how their poignant stories are brought to life with stunning animated sequences, enriched by artful touches of magical realism. Together, these accounts illuminate the life-and-death decisions made by ordinary Polish townsfolk decisions, which expose both the heights of human compassion and the depths of cruelty.
Viewers can find out more information if they go to this link: https://www.amongneighbors.com
Elise Cooper: Why make this film?
Yoav Potash: Making this film was a ten-year journey. The project was reborn three times. It all began because I was invited to this small town in Poland by Anita Friedman whose father was from there. She wanted to rededicate the Jewish cemetery. I went because I was personally curious about the lost world of Jewish “shlep” life, that included Yiddish phrases and Jewish folk art. I took the initiative and talked to the old people there about the time when half the town was Jewish. While interviewing those people I heard how Jews were murdered there well after WWII was over by Poles. I felt this town had a dark secret with an important story.
EC: Do you think the Polish people also participated in the Holocaust?
YP: Obviously the Germans was the main instigator of the Holocaust. But ordinary citizens either looked the other way, or enabled, embedded evil and genocide to occur. The Polish government and society today and over the last several decades think of themselves as victims or heroes when it comes looking at their WWII past. There were heroes and victims in the society but there were also those who rejoiced in what the Germans were doing and extended the Holocaust by continuing the killing of Jews after the war. Essentially Pogroms occurred after the war.
EC: Why did you emphasize this Polish law that passed in 2018?
YP: The Polish government passed a law saying someone could be subjected to three years in prison if they attributed any aspect of the Holocaust to Poland. It seemed important to me to put these stories in the film even if I could be prosecuted. This law was criticized by all nations all over the world, an affront to free speech and historical inquiry. Something was done to soften the law, eliminating the three-year prison sentence, and would never be enforced.
EC: Who is Pelagia?
YP: She is not Jewish but was attached to them. She cared about them and had a desire for their well-being during the war. She went through trauma herself after becoming an eyewitness to the Jewish murders. After I found her, it became obvious that in her old age she was on a quest to set the record straight. She told me the story of what really happened in that town.
EC: Why the animation in the film?
YP: After I heard this woman’s story, Pelagia, who witnessed the five murders of Jews by people in this Polish town after the war, I realized that archival footage was never going to do this woman’s story justice. I wanted the viewers to immerse themselves in her experience. I tried animation to give a set of visuals to guide people through her story and from there I took this leap into magical realism.
EC: How did Pelagia come to realize who the murdered Jews were?
YP: She did not know their last name but in 1996 saw a newspaper article about the identity of the family.
EC: Who is Yaacov Goldstein?
YP: He was a living Jewish Holocaust survivor from the same town as Pelagia. I decided to tell his story with animation also. He was saved by people who were inhumane. He was hidden in a dark tiny little storage nook where he could not even straighten his legs or see the sky for two years. He was not treated like a human being, but like an animal in a cage. They did not do the right things for the right reasons. These people who saved his life were being paid. The people that were the most humane to him were the children. One girl brought him books, and he credits those books from keeping him form losing his sanity.
EC: What do you want viewers to get out of the film?
YP: That this is not just a Holocaust film and, in a sense, it is post-Holocaust. There are no emaciated bodies in a mass grave because the film assumes people have seen and know about those facts. It is a story of not six million people, but just a story of a few people. I hope they view a gripping, emotionally moving film and see the intrigue, suspense, and graft. There are valuable themes including how every nation must confront the good and bad parts of their history with an honest dialogue.
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