“We were the lucky ones” — The Psychology of Kindertransport Survivors

1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK

Into the darkness of the Holocaust it is important to add true tales that are life affirming. My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination. This film, by Melissa Hacker, focuses on the psychology of the child survivors and the transmission of memory from one generation to the next. The filmmaker’s mother, the Academy Award nominated costume designer Ruth Morley (Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, The Hustler, The Miracle Worker, Tootsie, and many more classic American movies) fled Vienna on a Kindertransport in January of 1939. She is a strong presence in the film talking about her experiences alongside other former child refugees.

“Intimate… heartfelt…” — The New York Times

“Unashamedly emotional.” — Newsday

“A film of exceptional depth and resonance.” — The Forward

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VIEW THE TRAILER

THE SCHEDULE

⇒ September 27-30, watch the film My Knees Were Jumping on your home device. A link will be provided to all who register.

⇒ Sunday, September 29 at 4:00 p.m. US Eastern Time, tune into the program with our distinguished panel of speakers. A link will be provided to all who register.

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MEET THE SPEAKERS

Melissa Hacker, left, is the Executive Director of the Kindertransport Association. She is a filmmaker whose documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination and shown worldwide. A sought-after speaker, she has consulted on the exhibits Rescuing Children on the Brink of War at the Center for Jewish History in New York and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Without a Home: Kindertransports from Vienna at the Vienna Jewish Museum. She is the editor of two Academy Award nominated documentary films and serves on the Executive Committee and Governing Board of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants.

Rachel Dahill-Fuchel, right, is a career educator, native New Yorker, and the daughter of a Kindertransport survivor. She and her father, Kurt Fuchel, are featured in the film My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports. Her father’s story is considered a “happy” one, as both his parents survived, although the family was separated for nearly ten years. Unlike other children of Kindertransport survivors, Rachel knew of her grandparents’ and father’s wartime experiences from an early age. Despite having had the gift of knowing her grandparents, ripples from the trauma of those times has exacted a price. Opportunities to teach and discuss our shared history are necessary and invaluable, towards better understanding and preventing future atrocities.

Susan Mirow, Ph.D., M.D., left, is a psychiatrist and medical researcher. She is on faculty at the University of Utah School of Medicine and former Clinical Director of Utah State Hospital and Utah’s Psychiatric Consultant for Youth Corrections treating at-risk youth. In her private practice she treats trauma survivors. She has interviewed Holocaust survivors and hidden children for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah project. As the daughter of a Holocaust refugee, Dr. Mirow didn’t know her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, yet their silent screams from Auschwitz were given voice in her nightmares.

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Registration for this program is closed.