When I first saw it on the big screen in late November of 1989, this heartbreaking true story of the notorious staging ground (one of the largest) for Hitler's Final Solution provided a heavy dose of reality in a season normally devoted to blockbuster fantasy...but it was also one of the stronger films of that or any year. Of course by now the facts about the Holocaust are all too familiar, and the fate of the Polish city of Lodz was by no means unique: out of 200,000 Jews herded into the ghetto only 800 lived to see the end of the war. The numbers speak for themselves, but the film doesn't rely on statistics to relate what turns out to be a compelling story, unfolding almost like a drama in the diaries and letters of witnesses and survivors, read aloud over a vivid and varied collection of archival film footage, still photos, and images of the modern city. Among the many voices is that of the designated Jewish Elder Mordechai Rumkowski, a controversial figure who struck a Faustian bargain of appeasement with the Nazis that sent many of his own people to their grave. His letters, together with those of his victims, help make this both a profoundly moving film and a vital lesson in all-too recent history.