Little children who Nazis made suffer
The Nazis killed 1.5 million children. Mark Jonathan Harris's Oscar-winning documentary tells the story of the Kindertransport - the evacuation of 10,000 Jewish children to Britain on the eve of the Second World War. It was a bold humanitarian move for the government of the day. A similar move to allow thousands more into the USA was thrown out by Congress on the grounds that to admit the children without their parents would be 'godless'.
It's a rich mix, lively with personal recollection - there is the little boy whose violin is about to be confiscated by customs who whips it out, knocks out 'God Save The King' and melts the heart of the excise man, another boy who learns to speak English in a week and has never been able to speak German again, the little boy who marched up to Baron Rothschild and persuaded him to sponsor his parents' exodus from Germany. Even the little girl unwilling to be separated from her parents who tried to talk her way back onto the Auschwitz train.
This is everything a documentary should be - unfussily shot, edited without gimmicks and deploying solidly researched archive footage. But most chilling is the choice of music - German children's choirs singing patriotic songs, as crystal clear as Kristallnacht. If there is such a thing as Holocaust fatigue, here is its antidote.
Verdict: Bittersweet.
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