7: Film excerpt, “Long is the Road,” dir. Herbert B. Fredersdorf and Marek Goldstein, 1948.

7: Film excerpt, “Long is the Road,” dir. Herbert B. Fredersdorf and Marek Goldstein, 1948.

Written by and starring Israel Becker, Long is the Road examines the Holocaust through the perspective of a Polish-Jew. Filmed in a displaced persons camp during the summer of 1947, this was the first German-made film to directly address the Holocaust. Towards the end of the film, the main character, David, who is living in a DP camp, contemplates emigrating to British Mandate Palestine. The film is optimistic and idealistic about the prospect of life in the Land of Israel. David tells his soon-to-be wife, Dora, that immigrating there, and actively forgetting, will be the best salve for their psychological trauma. The film ends as David can be seen farming German land, and imagining his future in Israel.

Suggested Activity: Ask students about the way this film handles collective trauma and the need for a new collective identity. Is forgetting a valid response to trauma? Is it possible? Does constant remembrance create Holocaust fatigue or additional trauma? Ask students to discuss Keret’s story in light of this clip: Is the narrator suffering from too much remembrance in his family and in his society? Or too much forgetting?

Source: Long is the Road, directed by Herbert B. Fredersorf and Marek Goldstein (U.S.-Occupied Germany, 1948). Restored by the National Center for Jewish Film.