Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The Academy Award-winning documentary "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport" -- an account of a British program credited with saving thousands of European children from the Holocaust -- is increasingly being used as a tool to educate people about the atrocities of Nazi Germany. The documentary was produced by Deborah Oppenheimer, whose mother was one of those children. She told United Press International she heard about Kindertransport from her mother, but that her mother didn't talk about it much outside the family. Advertisement "When I was growing up I never heard the word outside the house," said Oppenheimer. Yet the episode was, with one important exception, very well documented. Kindertransport came about in response to fear and anxiety about what the Nazis were doing in the early and mid-1930s in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Concerned citizens in England managed to get the government to enact legislation to make it possible for middle European families to send children under 17 to live with sponsors in Britain. Advertisement While researching the project, Oppenheimer said she and her staff read 700 pages of transcripts of debate that took place in the House of Commons. The legislation was controversial. "The Depression was still in people's minds," said Oppenheimer, "and they were afraid that jobs would be taken, that the children would be a burden on the economy." She said there was also a widespread inclination towards anti-immigration and anti-Semitism, but in the end London gave the project its blessing. Oppenheimer and her staff also located photographs and home movies of many of the children and their families, largely owing to the fact that the families were given several days' notice when the time came to put their kids on trains and say goodbye -- in most cases, for the last time. Most parents of Kindertransport kids wound up being carted off to concentration camps in Germany and Austria. Producers did not find photographic evidence of the difficult, tearful goodbyes. "There was little photographic evidence of the Kindertransport itself," said Oppenheimer. "The Nazis didn't want anybody to know what was going on, so they did not allow photographs as the children boarded the trains." Even though there is an ample historical record of the episode, it had not become a familiar aspect of the Holocaust record in the years after World War II. Now, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder has made "Into the Arms of Strangers" -- narrated by Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench -- a standard part of his country's compulsory Holocaust curriculum. Advertisement Oppenheimer said other nations may soon follow suit. "We're trying to get it into the American curriculum and we're going to try to get it into the Israeli curriculum," she said. "You just go step by step. That to me is the greatest legacy of the film, getting it into the classroom." Oppenheimer -- who is also a producer on the ABC comedy, "The Drew Carey Show" -- is well aware that there are large numbers of Americans who, while sympathetic to the victims of the Holocaust, frequently express impatience with continually being reminded out it. "We have encountered a Holocaust fatigue," she said. "I think there are people who are tired of the Holocaust, and I think people think they know the story, and then when they come to the movie they find it's not at all what they expected. But this story hadn't been told much, hadn't really gotten out there." Oppenheimer said that ever since she first began to screen "Into the Arms of Strangers," audiences have been surprised to learn new details about a tragic era in world history about which so much has been written and documented. "We felt that there were a lot of good historical treatises out there, books and documentaries," said Oppenheimer. "At screenings, people made it clear they didn't want to know the historical details as much as they wanted the personal stories." Advertisement Reminded that one of the most popular pieces of mainstream entertainment of the year is "The Producers" -- Mel Brooks' burlesque of Nazi Germany -- Oppenheimer suggested that her documentary and the Broadway musical comedy could be thought of as complementary parts of a well-balanced diet. "I think it is," she said, "and I think it's okay for people to go see 'The Producers,' or 'Life Is Beautiful.' But if your only diet of the Holocaust were the more entertainment-oriented vehicles -- it would be better if people had some more substantive background. They would more appreciate the entertainment." Along with much material that is difficult and painful, there is humor in "Into the Arms of Strangers." Oppenheimer said she hopes people will "feel free to find it and laugh at it." Echoing the conventional wisdom, Oppenheimer said people need to be able to laugh so they can cope with tragedy. Recalling a 1984 theatrical production she worked on -- South African playwright Athol Fugard's "Master Harold and the Boys" -- Oppenheimer said she spent a good deal of time with two men who have lived under apartheid. "They would laugh about it," she said. "I would ask how can you? They would say, 'What's the alternative?'" Advertisement "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport" will air on HBO four times in December, premiering Dec. 10 at 8:00 p.m. (EST).
