The sequel to "Schindler's List" already exists. In Alex Rosner's determination. In Sol Urbach's children. In the laugh of Edzia Wertheim.
It can be found in the people of Steven Spielberg's movie, the Jews who worked in Oskar Schindler's factories and were protected from the Nazis by the industrialist. It can be found in their rebirth, their professional success, their families, their triumphs of the spirit."This is my second life. I'm very, very thankful. I got another chance," said Wertheim, who was saved by Schindler along with her husband. "We are having a wonderful life."
Mila Page, whose husband, Leopold, was an adviser on the movie, agreed.
"The people that I know mostly did move forward," the 73-year-old woman said. "They will always remember that terrible suffering, but most of them were able to build lives and go on."
The Pages, who built a successful handbag business in Beverly Hills, Calif., encouraged Thomas Keneally to write a book about Schindler, who died in 1974. That led to the acclaimed new movie about the more than 1,000 workers Schindler protected at his factories in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Edzia Wertheim's future began at Schindler's first factory, near Cracow, when she begged him to bring her friend Sam to work there.
After a time, Edzia and Sam were separated, but Schindler saved her and other women employees from the gas chamber. Later, she was reunited with her lover. When they married in 1946, Schindler gave the bride away.
"It's very romantic even now. I'm laughing with my husband, what a lucky coincidence," said Wertheim, 70, who now lives with her husband in Fort Lee, N.J.
Most of the survivors, now past retirement age, have shared their struggles, and their zest for life, with their children and grandchildren.
"I'm so happy you asked me about my children," said Sol Urbach, a retired builder from Flemington, N.J. "It's such a good ending to my story."
His oldest son is a cardiologist on Cape Cod, his daughter a lawyer in New York City, his youngest son a Ph.D. candidate in architecture at Princeton University.
Jack Mintz, 69, of Beechwood, Ohio, lost his parents, two brothers, four sisters and a sister-in-law to the Nazis. He said his only wish after being liberated was "to do what comes normal" and have a family.
He did - a son and a daughter. But his family is not whole.
"Comes a holiday, the kids don't have grandparents. No uncles, no aunts. It's cut down like a limb," he said.
Alex Rosner, who as a boy hid in latrine waste to save his life - a moment featured in the movie - said he never looked back until now and does so only to praise Schindler, who saved Rosner's mother.
"I think you go on with your life," said Rosner, who was shipped to Auschwitz and Dachau and kept alive by his father, a violinist who agreed to play for the Nazis if they would not kill his boy.
Rosner had high praise for Spielberg's film, as did about half a dozen recently interviewed people on the list who had seen the movie.
"I've seen so many documentaries on the Holocaust, and none of them had the realness and the impact this had to touch the viewers," Rosner said.