Why Holocaust remembrance matters as history is rewritten and antisemitism surges

In the small Polish town of Gniewoszów, the traces of Jewish life had been so thoroughly erased that even the tombstones from the destroyed cemetery were stolen and cut into millstones and pavers. In a sense, this is not so different from what is happening today, where facts are being warped and history reshaped into a means to advance political ideologies of the present. As International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, none of us can sit idly by and let this happen.

When we arrived in Gniewoszów in 2014 — Anita to rededicate the Jewish cemetery where members of her family had once been buried, and Yoav to create a cinematic record — we did not anticipate that what began as a modest act of remembrance would become a decade-long quest to uncover a story of loss, silence, complicity and the urgent need to confront uncomfortable truths.

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So uncomfortable, in fact, that the office of Poland’s president is calling for the removal of our film from Polish television and streaming services.

While many Holocaust films focus on Nazi atrocities, our film, Among Neighbors, shifts the lens to the Polish people and what occurred after the war, when some Jewish survivors returned home only to face violence — and even death — at the hands of their former neighbors. It is a reckoning with a chapter too often omitted from the narrative, events that reveal the heights of human compassion and the depths of cruelty.

The town’s oldest residents, now in the twilight of their lives, break decades of silence, sharing secrets they have carried for a lifetime. Their poignant stories are brought to life with hand-drawn animated sequences, enriched by artful touches of magical realism. 

The heart of our story lies with two individuals: Yaacov Goldstein, one of the last living Holocaust survivors born in Gniewoszów, and Pelagia Radecka, an 85-year-old Polish woman who bravely shares her searing eyewitness testimony. 

And it took courage because the obstacles to truth-telling are formidable. 

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In 2018, Poland’s government passed a law against speech that blames Poland for any part in the Holocaust, a move that threatened to silence precisely the kind of testimonies our film preserves. The chilling effect of such legislation is felt not only in Poland, but wherever historical revisionism and antisemitism take root.

This story matters now because the forces that seek to rewrite history are not confined to one country or era. Violent antisemitism is on the rise in our country, too, including arson attacks from a Jewish student center in San Francisco to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion. Social media influencers proudly declare they are on "Team Hitler," and famous athletes claim Jews "own every damn thing," parroting the notorious forgery "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Young people are too easily swayed by such voices, setting us on a very dangerous path. 

Throughout history, the welfare of Jewish communities has served as a barometer for a society’s health. When anti-Jewish sentiment proliferates, it erodes progress and contributes to cultural collapse. 

The list is endless of once-powerful realms who turned on their Jewish citizens, from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Arab empires, the Ottoman Empire, Spain and the Polish Kingdoms — not to mention Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They now exist only in history books and in the fantasies of terrorists and wannabe authoritarians.

Our film is a call to action: to resist the temptation to sanitize the past, to honor the complexity of human experience, and to recognize that the choices we make, as individuals and as societies, echo far beyond our own lifetimes.

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In making Among Neighbors, we sought to bring the past to life and ensure that the stories of the Jews who lived and died in Poland were not lost to history. In so doing, we came to challenge viewers to confront the uncomfortable realities that shape our world today. 

As attempts to rewrite history in favor of a more politically convenient narrative gain momentum, Among Neighbors offers a powerful counterpoint. True patriotism lies in facing the past honestly, no matter how painful the truth may be.

This is why we are screening the film at theaters, film festivals, community centers and schools across the U.S. and internationally. No attempt to silence this crucial chapter of human history — in Poland or elsewhere — will stop us. Indeed, such efforts only make more people interested in our film.

As the last witnesses fade, the responsibility to face history honestly falls to all of us. Remembrance is our inheritance. Let us not squander it.