SoftInloveRox
Horrible, fascist and poorly acted
Infamousta
brilliant actors, brilliant editing
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Rise Above
Excellent documentary. A story that deserved to be told. I thought the film did a really good job of showing the risks this couple took and the profound effect it had on so many precious lives. Loved that it was not laden with a bunch of recycled war footage. It didn't try to cover the entirety of the holocaust; but just enough to understand the situation and the danger involved. The interviews were poignant and really moved me to tears in a few spots. I also found the grand daughters comments very thoughtful and humble. You could really hear how much pride she had in what her grandparents did and how humble they were about it afterward. They were truly courageous and inspiring. The film was short and sweet. Loved the ending scenes showing then and now photos. The end was particularly well done, it made a big impact in such a quiet way. I watched it for free on HBO GO by verifying my HBO account with my cable provider. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it streaming on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
Red-125
50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. And Mrs. Kraus (2013) was written and directed by Steven Pressman, with narration by Alan Alda. The Kraus family were highly assimilated Philadelphia Jews, who were very successful and wealthy, but otherwise unexceptional.In 1939, for reasons that are never completely clear to us--or maybe to them--they decided to rescue 50 Jewish children from Nazi Germany. As you might guess, the obstacles to this project were immense. Gilbert Kraus, aided by his wife, went to Germany--risky for them personally--and brought the children out safely.What's fascinating is that the Krause's didn't do anything of that magnitude before or after this extraordinary event. Krause conceived of it, carried it out, and then went back to his law practice and his upper-class life. The movie celebrates this amazing event, made even more amazing by the fact that nothing preceding it or following it marked out the Kraus family for particular distinction. They didn't even talk much about the event afterward. They just did it, and they saved 50 lives.We saw this movie in the Dryden Theatre at the exceptional Rochester Jewish Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen. It's worth seeing.
James K Lewis (jim-jakesdad)
True courage is an unexplainable commodity. Gilbert and Eleanor Krauss paid attention to the news of Hitler's activities through 1938, the latest being the November Kristallnacht atrocity, the deaths of more than 30 Jews, the destruction of a thousand synagogues, and the incarceration of 30,000 Jewish men two days. Certainly, the cooperation of German and Austrian civilians with the Nazi soldiers in those couple of days made the future prospects of the remaining Jews very dim. Enter a Jewish attorney and his wife in Philadelphia (perhaps further inspired by their association with a Quaker church) who concocts a scheme to fetch fifty children from Jewish families in Vienna. He must go there to do this. My eyes tear up while trying to imagine what it took to believe, not only in the possibility of success of such a venture, but that he would survive a foray into such a violent, anti-semitic nightmare. Steven Pressman and Liz Perle's wonderful documentary is a fascinating examination of pressing-on in the face of frightening odds. See it.
Michael_Elliott
50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. And Mrs. Kraus (2013) *** (out of 4)Good documentary taking a look at a World War II story that many people might not have heard of. The Kraus family was a husband and wife team who decided to do something about all the children who could possibly end up dying because they were Jewish. The two had to jump through many loops and risk their own lives but in the end they were able to save the lives of fifty children and this documentary tells that story as well as features interviews with some of the children who were saved. 50 CHILDREN isn't a flawless documentary as there's no doubt that things could have been better at times but at the same time there's no question that the story itself is just so interesting that you can't help but get involved. I thought it was pretty fascinating hearing how this couple managed to get all of this children out of Vienna and how everything had to fall into the right place for it to happen. I also like how the documentary doesn't try to revise history and shows that many children were killed when they probably could have been saved if certain countries would have allowed the children to be taken in. The interviews with those who were saved is certainly a great thing so that future generations can see first hand accounts of what happened.
