Loving the Dead

Mira Hamermesh's film about her return to Poland to search for her mother's grave yields a wider picture of the Holocaust. Poland was the killing floor for most European Jews under the Nazis, and few, understandably, have moved back since the war. The culture is kept marginally alive through the efforts of various custodians; one craftsman makes clay models of traditional stetl figures, a group stages re-enactments of village life, and Auschwitz has its ghastly museum. Those who escaped return to pore over the ghetto photos. Most Poles, however, seem indifferent.