“Hiding and Seeking” and then “Finding and Thanking”

Shown with Mr. Daum are Chet Szarejko (left), vice president and Frank Milewski, president of the Downstate New York Division of the Congress. New York, N.Y. ... A recent commemoration at the Polish Consulate in New York City gave the Polish American Congress the opportunity to meet and greet Menachem Daum (center), the producer and director of the film, "Hiding and Seeking."

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"Hiding and Seeking" tells the story of a Jewish family (Daum's) which travels to Poland nearly sixty years after the end of the Holocaust. The purpose of the trip is to thank a Polish Catholic family who saved the life of three Jewish brothers, one of whom was Daum's father-in-law, during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. The three brothers were hidden and protected by the Mucha family inside their barn in Dzialoszyce, Poland for more than two years and survived the Holocaust as a result. Mr. Daum felt his family's trip to Poland was needed because his wife's father never got around to thanking the Mucha family for hiding him and preventing the Germans from killing him and his brothers. What also troubled Mr. Daum was the prejudice his own sons held against the Polish people. He wanted them to personally meet the Poles who endangered themselves in the process of saving their grandfather's life. In occupied Poland, the official German orders were to kill any Pole who helped a Jew. Mr. Daum began filming "Hiding and Seeking" on his first trip to Dzialoszyce in 2002 and completed it in 2004. He also made sure Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial acknowledged the heroism of the Muchas by designating them "Righteous Gentiles." It was a heartfelt expression of Jewish gratitude for the compassion of Polish Catholics who risked their life to save the life of the three Jewish brothers. "Jewish history and Polish history are inextricably intertwined," said Daum and "it has made it increasingly clear to me that Poles and Jews are not at all that different from one another and share many important values.” More information about Mr. Daum and his film can be found here (link) Mr. Daum is currently working on a new film, “Common Ground,” about Poles who voluntarily care for some of the 1200 abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

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