Living in Cracow with her brother, an army colonel, Mrs. Kuchler-Silberman has had her own war losses. Her infant daughter died from malnutrition. Her sister was killed by the Gestapo only three days before hostilities ended. And as a Jew herself, she is coping with the guilt of surviving. Throughout the war, she and her sister posed as Roman Catholics. After her daughter's death, she was abandoned by her husband. There were rumors that he took up with a German woman. These bits of information are divulged sparingly throughout the film, written by Jonathan Rintels and Yabo Yablonsky, directed by Ed Sherrin.

The focus is kept tightly on Mrs. Kuchler-Silberman and her adopted children. She finds them in a refugee center, filthy, hungry and frightened. Some are already hardened teen-agers, others are still terrified children. The older refugees are too traumatized to help. Mrs. Kuchler-Silberman finds only one woman, Bella (Leonore Harris), who is willing to help with the unending chores of simply washing and feeding the youngsters. Poland has been decimated by the war, and the competition for rehabilitation assistance is fierce. But Mrs. Kuchler-Silberman's determination is equally fierce, and she pressures various authorities for at least minimum assistance.

The country is occupied by Soviet troops and, at a quick glance, most viewers would be likely to assume they are the villains. But a closer look - and it would have to be very close indeed - reveals that the villainy honors belong almost exclusively to native Poles and their entrenched history of anti-Semitism. In fact, when the situation becomes too unbearable, Mrs. Kuchler-Silberman goes for relief to the Soviet authorities. The overall politics of the situation are kept decidedly fuzzy, no doubt in an effort not to muddy today's swirling anti-Communist waters.

In any event, the portrait of Poland - the film was shot in Hungary - is hardly of the type to please the country's tourist bureau. Looking back on her own deceptions for survival, Mrs. Kuchler-Silberman declares: ''My life is a lie and I live among murderers.'' As it turns out, her adopted children will not be allowed to live in peace and heal their wounds. ''There is no place in Poland for us without risk,'' she says. She and the children are living under siege. The only solution: head for the ''Promised Land'' of Palestine, armed with plenty of money and vodka to bribe the corrupt border guards.