I must be in the foreign Holocaust movie mode. This one, unlike the last, didn’t just make me sad…it ripped my heart out. How a movie can make my throat tighten, tears well, and stomach knot while at the same time find sweet innocent ways to make me laugh I don’t know. I never would have thought a comedy/drama about the horrors of a concentration camp would ever work. But not only does it work, it excels.

The humor comes from a loving father doing everything he can to protect his young son from the nightmares around them. And maybe that’s why it gets me so much. It’s hard to see any child suffer. That alone is enough to choke me up. But throw in the idea that I have to watch my own children suffer and the knife twists inside me. I want to shield my kids from pain and suffering. I want them to be happy and feel like the world accepts and loves them. Yet there are places where that just doesn’t happen. So as I watch this show and put myself in the place of the father, it melts me. It inspires me to be a better parent to my kids. I certainly don’t face a fraction of his troubles. He shows how parent’s sometimes must resort to extreme measures…even put themselves in harms way if that’s what it takes. It’s hard to imagine the hardships people face around the world. I’m beyond fortunate in my life.