Years Later We Would Remember

YEARS LATER WE WOULD REMEMBER

Synopsis of the Documentary (currently in post-production)

Years Later We Would Remember is a documentary that is really a love story: a love story between a man and a woman — and a father and a son. It chronicles the story of filmmaker Martin Kent taking his father, Jack Kent, 7,000 miles back to Poland — and indeed 70 years back in time — and ultimately discovering that his father is a hero. For in a time when Jews were being turned in by their neighbors out of fear, hatred or profit, Jack Kent, a Catholic, did what was right and noble. He’d fallen in love with a young Jewish girl on the run, and willingly laid his life on the line for her. The details and magnitude of his heroism are so remarkable that, two years after he and his son returned from their journey, Jack Kent was awarded Israel’s highest honor, the Righteous Among the Nations medal – the same recognition bestowed upon Oskar Schindler. Years Later We Would Remember is the powerful and heartfelt story of the past colliding with the present in a most amazing way.

In 1930, Martin’s mother Roza was just 9 years old. Back then she was known as Ziuta Kunstler, a Jewish child living in southeastern Poland. One night, Ziuta had an incredible, yet disturbing dream. She woke up screaming and crying, and told her parents that she’d dreamed it was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. She described an ominous scene in which the sky split open and a booming voice proclaimed: “a terrible fate awaits the Jews.”

As history would bear out, Ziuta’s dream was prophetic. In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland from the west, and the Russians invaded from the east. Ziuta’s family wound up being moved to a ghetto where two massacres took place. Somehow, Ziuta’s family survived, for the time being. Before they themselves were killed, Ziuta’s two older brothers arranged to have her sent hundreds of miles away, where she would attempt to survive under an assumed identity.

As fate would have it, she wound up getting a job as a waitress and pastry chef in a cafe run by Antoni Glazewski and his son, Jack Kent, who was known back then as Olek. The young man was smitten by Ziuta and eventually fell in love with her. Finally, unable to hold back any more, he revealed his secret feelings. Ziuta, in turn, revealed her own secret. She told him she was Jewish and his life would be in danger if he got involved with her. Olek’s reply? “You’re Jewish. Great. Now I can prove my love for you. Now I can lay my life on the line.”

In incident after incident, Olek did just that. Their survival was a combination of his bravery and resourcefulness, and even a miracle or two. Then, after Olek and Ziuta survived the war, they and their first son, Joseph, emigrated to America, where they started a new life. They expanded their family, with the birth of Martin, and eventually grandchildren and great grandchildren. But for years, they hid their amazing story from their family. Incredible as it was, it was nonetheless too painful to recollect. But with enough time, in this case, 70 years, their story could finally come to light. Years Later We Would Remember.

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