With the US, many countries in Europe and elsewhere wracked by anti-immigrant sentiments, it's instructive to go back to a time when similar sentiments against 'the other' were at their peak and resulted in a ghastly tragedy of unparalelled proportions. So this (TV) movie by John Gray chooses to go back a full seven decades, to a Europe and America in the throes of World War II and its aftermath.
It's a true story based on real events and characters, which makes us reassess our commitment to certain values, especially in the face of adversity. An American journalist, Ruth Gruber (Natasha Richardson) working for the Dept. of Interior, voluntarily takes on the dangerous responsibility of escorting nearly a thousand of the refugees fleeing a Nazi onslaught and granted asylum by US Govt. Gruber, of Polish ancestry and Jewish faith, volunteers for the assignment over the objections of her parents (Anne Bancroft and Martin Landau). Supported by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes (Hal Holbrook), she travels to Europe aboard an Air Force plane, which comes under fire but lands safely. She helps the refugees board the US ship escorted by warships. She's discouraged to see the many refugees rejected by US troops, mainly because of lack of space but some on spurious criteria laid down by Govt.
On the transatlantic journey, especially during the air raids and submarine chases, Gruber feels the latent hostility among the wounded US soldiers, also travelling on the ship, towards the Jew refugees, though the situation eases a bit by the time they reach US. Gruber's despatches to US from the ship, with the horrific stories recounted by individual refugees, melt the hearts of even some of the soldiers like the communication man. Stories lIke that of the claustrophobic Mordechai (Daniel Kash) who had been buried alive by Nazis after his family and friends were shot. However, these stories are suppressed by bureaucrats, just like earlier stories emanating from European missions about concentration camps, as narrated to Gruber by a sympathetic bureaucrat later. He also tells her that Jewish immigration applications from Europe had been deliberately blocked by bureaucracy, as she suspected when her German Jew friends Beata Stern (Sharon Bernbaum) and her Papa (Yank Azman) had been denied US visa before the War even after repeated attempts.
Then the Govt. declares, upon the refugees' arrival, that all the refugees are to be housed in a camp in Oswego, New York, even those having families willing to house them. Gruber realizes her work with the refugees is far from done, and she bravely battles against both bureaucracy and racial prejudice to win both dignity and fair treatment for the new settlers.
Intially, the town residents are hostile towards the refugees, some on the ground that their sons have to fight (and, for some, die) defending distant Europeans, some in the fear that the refugees would take away their jobs. But slowly the refugees are accepted by the residents, with shared experiences like Thanksgiving meals. The incident of a runaway refugee girl Manya (Tamara Gorsky) poignantly brings such integration to the fore, when the town residents join the refugees in searching for her amidst a snowy night. Thus, a whole lot of people are forced to confront their own prejudices and overcome them with their innate humanity.
There are emotional moments in the film which bring out the personal nature of the characters. Like Gruber's touching relation with her father (who passes away towards the end) and mother. Like when two of the refugees Manya and Ernst (Henry Czerny) develop a chemistry, rising above their brutalized past, and eventually marry, helped along by Gruber. Like the dead soldier's father, Myles Billingsley (Bruce Greenwood) who develops a friendship with a refugee Bruno (Colm Feore) who recounts how his own son was shot by Nazis in front of him. Gruber also helps some young refugees to go to college, taking advantage of a bureaucratic loophole, where they're initially resented by some of the other students but eventually do well (one even gets an admission opportunity for Harvard).
The movie is interspersed with Gruber's own recollections of her pre-War time in Europe earlier, especially with her German boyfriend Johan (Sebastian Roche) who she had to disavow before she left Germany, after he was revealed to be a member of the Nazi party.
It's when the War ends and, despite Gruber's efforts, the refugees are ordered to be sent back to Europe, that things come to a head. In a moving sequence, local residents are seen to step in before the refugees, asking Govt. officials to send them also back to Europe as they also hail from various European countries originally - one even points out that a Govt. officer processing the refugees himself hails from Europe! This sequence powerfully illustrates the fact that (relatively) earlier 'settlers' at a place start 'owning' it and tend to deny the same opportunity to others later.
Eventually, once Gruber approaches the new President Harry Truman, and actual stories of the Holocaust come out, the refugees are granted leave to stay in US. A happy ending, but the film leaves the viewer with deep questions about attitudes toward 'the other', latent prejudices which surface especially during times of hardship, and the innate dignity of all humans. Worth spending the 3 hours (it was released as a two-part feature).
On the transatlantic journey, especially during the air raids and submarine chases, Gruber feels the latent hostility among the wounded US soldiers, also travelling on the ship, towards the Jew refugees, though the situation eases a bit by the time they reach US. Gruber's despatches to US from the ship, with the horrific stories recounted by individual refugees, melt the hearts of even some of the soldiers like the communication man. Stories lIke that of the claustrophobic Mordechai (Daniel Kash) who had been buried alive by Nazis after his family and friends were shot. However, these stories are suppressed by bureaucrats, just like earlier stories emanating from European missions about concentration camps, as narrated to Gruber by a sympathetic bureaucrat later. He also tells her that Jewish immigration applications from Europe had been deliberately blocked by bureaucracy, as she suspected when her German Jew friends Beata Stern (Sharon Bernbaum) and her Papa (Yank Azman) had been denied US visa before the War even after repeated attempts.
Then the Govt. declares, upon the refugees' arrival, that all the refugees are to be housed in a camp in Oswego, New York, even those having families willing to house them. Gruber realizes her work with the refugees is far from done, and she bravely battles against both bureaucracy and racial prejudice to win both dignity and fair treatment for the new settlers.
Intially, the town residents are hostile towards the refugees, some on the ground that their sons have to fight (and, for some, die) defending distant Europeans, some in the fear that the refugees would take away their jobs. But slowly the refugees are accepted by the residents, with shared experiences like Thanksgiving meals. The incident of a runaway refugee girl Manya (Tamara Gorsky) poignantly brings such integration to the fore, when the town residents join the refugees in searching for her amidst a snowy night. Thus, a whole lot of people are forced to confront their own prejudices and overcome them with their innate humanity.
There are emotional moments in the film which bring out the personal nature of the characters. Like Gruber's touching relation with her father (who passes away towards the end) and mother. Like when two of the refugees Manya and Ernst (Henry Czerny) develop a chemistry, rising above their brutalized past, and eventually marry, helped along by Gruber. Like the dead soldier's father, Myles Billingsley (Bruce Greenwood) who develops a friendship with a refugee Bruno (Colm Feore) who recounts how his own son was shot by Nazis in front of him. Gruber also helps some young refugees to go to college, taking advantage of a bureaucratic loophole, where they're initially resented by some of the other students but eventually do well (one even gets an admission opportunity for Harvard).
The movie is interspersed with Gruber's own recollections of her pre-War time in Europe earlier, especially with her German boyfriend Johan (Sebastian Roche) who she had to disavow before she left Germany, after he was revealed to be a member of the Nazi party.
It's when the War ends and, despite Gruber's efforts, the refugees are ordered to be sent back to Europe, that things come to a head. In a moving sequence, local residents are seen to step in before the refugees, asking Govt. officials to send them also back to Europe as they also hail from various European countries originally - one even points out that a Govt. officer processing the refugees himself hails from Europe! This sequence powerfully illustrates the fact that (relatively) earlier 'settlers' at a place start 'owning' it and tend to deny the same opportunity to others later.
Eventually, once Gruber approaches the new President Harry Truman, and actual stories of the Holocaust come out, the refugees are granted leave to stay in US. A happy ending, but the film leaves the viewer with deep questions about attitudes toward 'the other', latent prejudices which surface especially during times of hardship, and the innate dignity of all humans. Worth spending the 3 hours (it was released as a two-part feature).
