Glenn Kurtz found a reel of home video footage shot by his grandfather on a tour of Europe in 1938. Along with recognizable scenes in London, Paris, Berlin and other major cities, were 3+ minutes of a mysterious Polish town and unknown faces of elders and children populating the square vying for face time in front of the camera. Dedicated research led to the discovery it was his Grandfather's hometown of Nasielsk. The majority of those faces would disappear forever when the city was purged and people transported to death camps not long afterward.
Taking a mere three minutes of film, and only that footage, to tell such a powerful story in a unique way was a first for me. It was an amazing job of restoration and research that brought these 3 minutes back to life. Several people were identified. Seven survivors located. The process and the product are fascinating. One of the remarks made during the Q & A was about how we as observers seeing this footage 83 years after the fact and know the impending doom these people face can create so much emotion.
On a personal note, touring any of the Holocaust death camps across Europe created this same overwhelming heartache in me. Especially at Auschwitz. There is such an emotional heaviness with the sadness of human tragedy, even with the air you breathe. One more reason to study all of history and not just the parts that make a country look good.