Image Before My Eyes

90 minutes
Source: Ergo Media

Using photographs, drawings, home movies, music, and interviews with survivors, this production re-creates Jewish life in Poland from the late 19th century through the 1930s. It builds with great personal detail the depth and diversity of Jewish culture—the intellectual and creative achievements, the class stratification, the varying degrees of religious orthodoxy, the different levels of assimilation. In doing so, the program emphasizes the magnitude of the loss that occurred when the Nazis destroyed Jewish Poland during World War II. An interesting comparative study can be made between this film and Camera of My Family, which depicts the lifestyle of German Jews.

Related lesson:
The Web of Community: Jewish Life Before the War