60 years on: from despair to joy is an emotional and ultimately inspiring new film that focuses on the impact of the Holocaust on children of survivors and the journey from the ashes to today.

 

The film tells the moving story of 55 men who traveled from their homes in northern New Jersey to Poland and Israel in May 2008.

They journeyed to find their roots. They found so much more.

They first visit the Warsaw ghetto and the concentration/death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, before going straight to Israel, to be in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in time for Memorial Day and Independence Day to celebrate 60 years of Israel’s independence. Their journey includes visiting Sderot, the town close to the border with Gaza that has been the subject of constant missile attacks.

Narrated by Matt Lauer, host of NBC’s Today show, and using historical and current day footage, the story unfolds through the eyes and feelings of six men - three are sons of concentration camp survivors, one is a son-in-law of a US soldier who liberated the camps and two have no direct connection to the Holocaust.

It was the most memorable seven days of their lives.