| Actors:
| Judi Dench, Alexander Gordon, Lory Cahn, Kurt Fuchel, Eva Hayman | | Director:
| Mark Jonathan Harris | | Format:
| Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC | | Language:
| English, French | | Subtitle:
| English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Warner Home Video | | Run Time:
| 122 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| August 28, 2001 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 40 reviews |
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Average Customer Review:
 ( 40 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 59 found the following review helpful:
 Not a rehash - an ORIGINAL , inspiring documentarySep 23, 2001
By K. Corn
"reviewer"
I could watch this documentary over and over. For those who may not know of the Kindertransport, it was a major effort to get children out of Germany, Czechoslovakia and other countries and into Britain. Parents had to give up their children to strangers, hoping for the best.
Years later, the film-makers have interviewed actual participants in the Kindertransport and done an amazing job. This one stands out for several reasons. First, the accounts, told from the point of view those who were in the Kindertransport, are vivid and engrossing, revealing the sense of wonder, fear and courage the children experienced as they were given up by their parents. The score which accompanies the movie adds poignancy and depth without being manipulative or overly sentimental - not an easy task to pull off. If you still have doubts about purchasing this movie, rent it first (it just came out in a rental version). One viewing and I guarantee you'll want to own your own copy.
41 of 41 found the following review helpful:
My mother's storyMar 11, 2002
By Peter Champion
My mother left Vienna when she was 16, in the spring of 1939. Though she'd told my sister and me stories about traveling on a train and ending up with a family in England, neither of us had much of a sense of what had happened beyond her safe arrival in England, her being taken in by a loving family, and her eventual emigration to the US.
Into the Arms of Strangers helped me better understand the story of her life and that of thousands of others. The stories are gripping; the film is well-conceived and produced. The interviews are powerful.
The special power of this film is that it puts human faces on a moral outrage so enormous that we easily lose any sense of scale. Each interviewee tells a story which, though deeply personal, touched me as a fellow human being and as the child of a kindertransport child. This film helps us to understand the infinite worth of each individual-- those who were blessed with survival, and those who perished.
In a few months, my mother will turn 80. After viewing this film, I have the overwhelming desire to hear her tell the story of the kindertransport from her own experience. We must hear and pass on these stories before they are lost, and Into the Arms of Strangers is an excellent place to begin.
41 of 42 found the following review helpful:
AdoptedDec 15, 2001
By Alyssa A. Lappen
This is one of the more moving documentaries I have seen. It accomplishes something wonderful--takes the viewer into the lives and minds of a handful of children whose parents managed to get them onto Britain's World War II Kindertransport relief effort. After the March 1938 Anschluss, Great Britain agreed to accept all Jewish children whose care could be guaranteed, and by November 9 and 10 1938, 431 children were placed. Kristallnacht opened the floodgates, and by September 1939 another 9,354 children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia streamed into Britain with help from 5 groups including B'nai Brith and the Refugee Children's Movement; 1,850 more came via Youth Aliya and agricultural groups. More than 11,000 children were thus saved from Nazi fires that extinguished the lives of 6 million Jewish people, including 1 million children.
The statistics pale, however, next to the human faces and stories that this film provides. Viewers meet perhaps a dozen aging survivors of the trauma that both preserved their lives and separated them from their parents--usually, forever. Not all parents could stand the strain. One woman recounts how her father pulled her out of the train window as it left the station without her and all the horrors that befell her family afterwards. Each story is more painful and enduring than the last. These children endured the direst imaginable circumstances, and yet learned afterwards that far worse had happened to their families. There are as many layers as people here, all of whom made something of their lives. Yet the film is accessible to everyone--and especially meaningful for children who were themselves adopted. Alyssa A. Lappen
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
into the arms of strangers is a wonderful documentaryJun 18, 2001
By Paul Thibodeaux
I saw "Into the Arms of Strangers: stories of the Kindertransport " in New Orleans at the Jewish Film Festival. This documentary chronicles the Kindertransport, a massive releif effor sponsored by Britain in which Jewish children from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria were welcome in Britain from November, 1938 to September , 1939. This is a moving documentary about the courage of parents giving up their children so they can live a better life. The real participants in the Kindertransport are interviewed. They recall in vivid detail their experiences and the feelings of fear and wonder at traveling and seeing the world for the first time. This documentary brings WWII to the human details. It challenges the viewer to reflect and think about what he would do when faced with such a difficult choice. This should be required viewing for all elementary school children. Look for Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport" at your local theatre. It will truly move you.
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Into the arms of strangers-Stories of the kindertransportJan 21, 2002
This was without a doubt the most heartwrenching movie I have ever seen. The interviews with the actual children were very touching. Some saw their parents murdered right in front of them while others were being tormented with the unknown of what happened to their parents once they said goodbye to the at the train station. What angered me was how the US refused to help sponsor these children because it "went against the law of God". As a parent, I could never imagine having to let my child go to another country and stay with strangers, but they knew if they didn't the children would probably die. This is a must see for anyone with a heart.
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