Aida’s Secrets is an inspiring true story of two brothers who finally meet after learning of each other’s existence.
The year has been a stronger year for Holocaust-related documentaries even as survivors start to pass on. Aida’s Secrets doesn’t so much focus on reliving the horrors of the Shoah in as much as it focuses on reuniting a family. The biggest tragedy may very well be that Izak Szewelwicz, sent away to Israel for adoption in 1945, didn’t learn of his brother, Shep Shell, until a few years ago. Both brothers had been born at the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp in 1945. It turns out that their biological mother, Aida Zasadsinska, held even more secrets that she had never told anyone about.
Izak learned he was adopted when he was ten years old and started a relationship with his biological mom shortly thereafter. This was at a time when the internet wasn’t around so think about that for a moment. Finding family in 2017 is so much easier than it would have been during the 1950s, much thanks to genealogy websites and social media.
Much credit goes to Izak’s nephews, Shaul and Alon Schwarz, in telling their uncle’s story. The two brothers have helped to tell a story that would have otherwise largely forgotten.
Music Box Films opened Aida’s Secrets on October 20, 2017. The film will screen at Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre starting today. The film will be released on DVD and Digital HD in January 2018.
