Remembering Milt Feldman: Voices Recovered from the War

Milt Feldman would have been thrilled to hear about this discovery. A recent article by Meryl Kornfield in The Washington Post describes how a man clearing out his garage in Waterloo, New York, found a hidden box of wartime documents. Inside were handwritten accounts by American prisoners of war describing their captivity in Germany: hunger, cold, overcrowding, inadequate medical care. Reading about them, I immediately thought of Milt and the story he entrusted to us in A Soldier’s Dream (2018).

Milt was a Jewish soldier from Brooklyn serving with the 106th Infantry Division when he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. His captivity took him to Stalag IV-B, where he remained until liberation by the Red Army. Those events became the heart of our film, but working with Milt also meant getting to know the person who had carried those memories through a long life.

I believe these recovered testimonies lend further support to his account of the conditions American prisoners endured. Establishing particular connections would require examining the documents themselves, but the experiences described in the article are painfully familiar. They echo the world Milt recalled for my camera decades later.

During production, Milt guided my research in Europe through calls and emails from his home in California. With the help of historians, we located his wartime position in the Ardennes and retraced his journey into captivity. Sharing those places with him was among the most moving experiences I have had as a filmmaker. Milt died in March 2020, but I still think of him often.

This discovery gives me another reason to share the documentary A Soldier’s Dream. Documents can survive unnoticed behind a wall; memories survive because someone agrees to tell their story and someone else takes the time to listen. Milt gave us that opportunity. I invite you to watch the film below and spend some time with him.