Six months after World War II ended, five Jewish Holocaust survivors returned to the Polish town of Gniewoszów—only to be murdered by their own Polish neighbors, not the Nazis.
Thanks to Jon Leland, who recommended this one.
Trailer for “Among Neighbors”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- Pelagia Radecka was only a teenager when she witnessed the murders. She kept what she knew buried for more than 70 years before speaking about it for this doc.
- Yaacov Goldstein escaped a wagon taking Jews toward a Nazi death camp. He later survived by hiding for about two years in a space so cramped he couldn’t even straighten his legs. And that wasn’t Yaacov’s only close call: he later escaped a firing squad.
Watch “Among Neighbors”
You can find the latest streaming options for “Among Neighbors” on JustWatch here.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 94/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 96/100 (Users); 100/100 (Critics)
Release Date: 2024.
Director’s Note: Yoav Potash directed, wrote, produced and helped edit this 100-minute documentary. He previously made “Crime After Crime,” the Sundance documentary about domestic-violence survivor Deborah Peagler. Potash spent roughly 11 years making this, including around seven trips to Poland.
Other Unique Stuff
- The doc uses hand-drawn animation to recreate memories that could never have been filmed. It works especially well with the eyewitness testimony—the animation feels like memory rather than a fake reenactment.
- The controversy is especially interesting because Poland passed a law in 2018 aimed at claims implicating Poland in Nazi crimes. The criminal penalties in that law were later softened.
Wrap Up:
“Among Neighbors” is one of those Holocaust docs that shows what happened to some Jews who survived the Nazis and then went home. Pelagia and Yaacov make that history painfully personal—and almost impossible to forget.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc