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The horrors of the Holocaust were more pervasive than can be imagined by those who did not experience them. Which is why this new documentary from Academy Award–winner (The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table) Aviva Slesin is so powerful. Straddling the line between heart-warming and heart-wrenching, Secret Lives tells the complex and emotional story of non-Jewish families throughout Europe who risked their lives to save a small number of Jewish children — of which Slesin was one (in Lithuania) — from the Nazis. Some lived in closets for months. Others assimilated and converted to Christianity. Many considered their "hidden" time the best part of their childhood. Although WW2 devastated entire countries, its resolution created another kind of havoc, as many of the children faced orphanhood or were abruptly reclaimed by surviving parents they no longer knew. Through touching present-day interviews and joyous reunion footage of the former children and their rescuers, Slesin explores the unbreakable bonds and love they still share some 50 years later. Inspiring but never sentimental, this bittersweet film sheds light on uncommon human decency that defied inhumanity. (72 minutes)
BY VAL MAASS
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