在这个赎罪中，自爷爷以来的第二个，一个Holocaust survivor, passed, I continue to reflect on his story, and how I can pass it forward to my own two children. As time goes by, I feel even more appreciative that I have been able to preserve his legacy through the documentary I made about his story of survival:海星。
海星is the story of my grandfather, Herb Gildin. In 1939, at the age of 10,他逃走了纳粹德国,连同他的两个姐妹,Cele (who was 14) and Margaret (12) — with the guidance of HIAS. They were taken in by non-Jewish families in the town of Falun, Sweden, saying goodbye to their parents in Germany, unsure if they’d ever see them again.
It took almost two years and a long journey, through Russia and the Pacific, for the three siblings to finally reunite with their parents, who eventually were able to immigrate to the U.S. There, they would go on to build a new life for themselves in Brooklyn, learning a newlanguage and cultureonce again. My grandfather was determined to make a name for himself and his future family. Ultimately, along with his brother-in-law, he founded Satco Products, Inc., a lighting and manufacturing company that is still prominent today.
And yet, decades went by before my grandfather ever told his wife and children the story of his harrowing journey. While they learned bits and pieces throughout the years, it was not a topic of conversation my祖父ever willingly brought up or reflected on. My grandfather was someone who always focused on the future — or on other people. Truly, speaking about his own past would have been out of character for him. Had it not been for my aunt(his daughter), who really asked the questions and did the research, he may have never so openly spoken about his incredible tale of survival. When he finally shared his story with the family at the age of 70, it inspired him to take one last journey back to Sweden to reunite with the remaining family members who had taken in his sisters and him.
While I didn’t take this trip with my family — in the summer of 2001, my siblings and I were at summer camp — the video footage my aunt and cousins captured was truly inspiring, and it eventually enabled me to tell a visually compelling story of reconnection. During a meal meant to celebrate the reuniting of the families, my grandfather gave a poignant speech in which he read Loren Eisley’s “The Starfish Story,” which is about starfishes that washed up along the beach, and the individuals who chose to throw them back in for another chance at life. This is a story that resonated with me deeply, as it’s also one we were told every year at夏令营。知道我可以在全世界都听到同样的故事，同时在我的祖父告诉它，真的让我感动了。它激发了我的帖子海星。
我必须花过去两年的祖父的生活与他在纪录片上工作，这是我永远珍惜的东西。更重要的是，现在他的故事被捕获在电影上，我将能够直观地保护他的遗留和记忆，以便几代来。在如此艰难的时期，捕捉生活在犹太人的犹太人的叙述更为重要的叙述，因为悲伤的真理是我们的大多数孩子将在一个没有的世界中长大Holocaust survivors。他们将不得不依靠这些电影，书籍和照片来继续保持这些故事。我很感激永远拥有这份纪录片，提醒重要的重要性resiliency，人类的善良，重新联系和家庭传统。
My son was born in December of 2018; before he died, my grandfather only had the chance to meet him once, when he was 4 months old. The photos and videos I have of them together are priceless. My son, who is now 2, often looks at one of the photos we have of the four generations together (my grandfather, my father, myself, and him). He’ll point at my grandfather and say, “Papa,” but there’s no way for him to actually remember him or know what he was like. Still, in a few years, when he’s older, I’ll be able to show him and his little sister thisdocumentary。They’ll be able to know all about their great-grandfather as well as their own family history.
Four generations of the Gildin family.
我的祖父在90岁到达的那一天是一个我永远不会忘记的苦乐参半。虽然我失去了我生命中最重要的数字之一，但我也获得了新的快乐，因为我的妻子和我发现我们期待另一个孩子。它让我很高兴知道有一天我的女儿，哈洛，有一天会看电影并开始“见到”她被命名的人。我希望爸爸有机会见到她，但我确实相信他们将永远以某种方式交织在一起。
这个past Passover，我们继续尊重我祖父的传统对我来说特别有意义。正如我们家庭的习俗，在塞特的后期，每个人都参加了一小块阿富汗人，把它包裹在锡箔中，并在全年里藏出来，祝你好运。今年，我在社交媒体上发布了我的部分照片，我的几个表兄弟回答说，他们做了同样的传统，因为他们的祖母（我的祖父姐姐，Cele）教过同样的事情。我想象我的祖父，他的两个姐妹，以及我的曾祖父母，这对我来说非常特别在德国in the 1930’s. I find it meaningful that we keep this same tradition alive here in the U.S. nearly a century later.
我的祖父从来都不是最宗教的数字，但他自豪地被认为是犹太人，他强烈地认为继续继续传递给他的传统。作为两个幼儿的父亲，我希望继续纪念他的遗产以及那些在我面前的许多人的遗产。我非常感激these traditionsto remind me of him — but, ultimately, the ability to share his life story is the greatest gift my grandfather gave me — a gift I hope to continue to pass down for generations to come.
海星is available to stream on various platforms; for more information, click这里。
Images courtesy of Tyler Gildin
