The Long Way Home (1997)

The story of the post World War II Jewish refugee situation from liberation to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.

Director:

Mark Jonathan Harris

Writer:

Mark Jonathan Harris

Stars:

Morgan Freeman, Israel Lau, Livia Shacter

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Morgan Freeman	...	Narrator (voice)
Israel Lau	...	Himself - Chief Rabbi of Israel
Livia Shacter	...	Herself - Auschwitz Survivor
Abraham Klausner	...	Himself - US Army Chaplain
Winston Churchill	...	Himself - on V-E Day with Bevin (archive footage)
Ernest Bevin	...	Himself - Speech After Labour Victory (archive footage)
Harry S. Truman	...	Himself - Lights Christmas Tree (archive footage)
Clement Attlee	...	Himself - Outside 10 Downing St. (archive footage)
Dwight D. Eisenhower	...	Himself - Visits Feldafing DP Camp (archive footage)
George S. Patton	...	Himself - Visits Feldafing DP Camp (archive footage)
Herbert Friedman	...	Himself - US Army Chaplain
Hermann Göring	...	Himself - on Trial, Testifies (archive footage)
Ruth Gruber	...	Herself - Foreign Correspondent
Harold Katz	...	Himself - Brichah Volunteer
James F. Byrnes	...	Himself - Speech on German Recovery (archive footage)

Storyline

After WWII, Jewish Holocaust survivors are moved into Displaced Persons' camps. After delays, more physical hardship, and years of uncertainty, they are permitted to begin new lives in Israel and the U.S.

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Plot Keywords:

israel | palestine | british | holocaust | jewish | 

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Genres:

Documentary | History | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dluga droga do domu

Company Credits

Production Co:

Moriah Films,Simon Wiesenthal Center

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

DTS

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Siskel & Ebert: He Got Game/The Truce/Two Girls and a Guy/Sliding Doors/Deja Vu (1998)

User Reviews

It's my story.

It's also the story of every Jewish child born in a DP camp after WII, like the one I was born in in Bavaria. Not one of us had any grandparents. Not even graves to visit later in life. Our grandparents were shot into ditches later burned to get rid of the evidence so not one of us children knew what it meant to have a grandparent. We thought only Gentiles had grandparents. We were waiting to to Palestine, but the British had blockaded the coast. In the case of my father, because he had military experience, having been inducted into the Red Army after fleeing Poland, and having fought from Leningrad to Berlin,and then having defected at the first opportunity, the Irgun - the terrorist underground - offered to secretly fly my father and us to Palestine. But I was born with health problems that needed attention, and both my parents had lost their first families and children to the Nazis in the war, so when Truman offered to finally take us in 1948, my parents decided on Brooklyn rather than Tel Aviv. At the time the Irgun was fighting the British and the Arabs. But this story of what happened to the Jews of Europe AFTER the Holocaust, and what we went through is very well covered in this accurate and insightful documentary.