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.

Wars and major political events get most of the attention in the history books and the movies, but what happens in between can be just as interesting, if not as spectacular. The period between the end of the American War for Independence (1783) and the ratification of the Constitution (1789) is such a period. So is the period between the end of World War II (1945) and the establishment of the state of Israel (1948). That is the time covered by The Long Way Home.

Everyone knows what happened during World War II from lots of war movies and from more specific movies such as Schindler's List. The history of Israel since its founding hasn't been as thoroughly covered, but movies such as Munich help. The only other movie I know of that covers the 1945 - 1948 period is Exodus.

Some of the points covered by this movie are surprising. The opposition both to the creation of Israel and to Jews in general was widespread, not just in Germany but also in Britain and even in America. The comments of Ernest Bevin and George Patton are shocking. President Truman was one of the few people in the country who supported Israel. One wonders what would have happened if Roosevelt had still been President.

This story is told from the Israeli point of view. The arguments of the Arabs (e.g. that they shouldn't bear the burden of Germany's policies) are mentioned, but just in passing. Although the movie isn't balanced, it's still a reasonably fair presentation of the history of the foundation of Israel.

It was very moving and emotional to see that the agony of the Holocaust didn't stop with the end of WWII. I learned a lot of history and think even more of President Truman than I did before. Conversely, I think less of Patton, Marshall and England for their behavior. It is a tremendous statement of the human spirit and the triumph of Will over Circumstance!