I think that Ida and Neighbors, while complimentary, and certainly related, tell different stories,
Ida providing a human aspect that Neighbors lacks. The film creates a face and a story for the staggering statistics and numbers that make up the backbone of Gross’ book. While Neighbors is compelling in its own right, with snippets of personal anecdotes and half-included tales of a larger story, Ida provides the story the book presents evidence for. The film fills in the lacuna; Ida’s quest for her family’s history and her own story acts similar to my own quest for details while reading Neighbors. The book is wonderful in that it constructs a case with supporting evidence and testimony. However, the film follows a continuous storyline focused on one character, giving it a resolution I simply did not find in the book.
While I enjoyed the book (as much as a book about a massacre can be enjoyed), I found it difficult to wrap my head around. How could ordinary people, much like you or I, orchestrate the murder or an entire village of people, of their neighbors? Although Ida did not answer this question for me, it did provide me with a face to focus on, to represent a larger group. While it is hard to visualize the perpetrators of this violence, I found it similarly difficult to imagine the victims. Just as I could easily be the murderer, I could also be the murdered. In a situation so far removed from anything I have experienced, it is impossible to know which side I would stand on. I like to imagine I would stand on the side of justice and humanity, heroically saving the Jews, but history has proven this unlikely. It is far more plausible that I would either be killed, if I was Jewish, or partake in the massacre- although as a woman, my chances at simply being a bystander are higher (however, this is horrible in its own right).
I think the lesson here is that the book and the film need to be taken together. The book provides the hard knowledge, an accurate account of what happened, while the movie makes the massacre more relatable. Together, I questioned my role in history- who I would be if caught in a similar scenario. Neighbors made me curious for more information, while Ida made me question myself.