NOVA’s Holocaust Escape Tunnel

11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

In this film produced by the NOVA science series and directed by Paula S. Apsell and Kirk Wolfinger, cutting-edge technology reveals a Holocaust escape tunnel in a forest outside Vilnius, Lithuania. Meet the lead scientist who discovered the escape tunnel and the daughter of one of the survivors who tunneled his way to freedom.

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VIEW THE TRAILER

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THE SCHEDULE

⇒ March 7-10, watch the film Holocaust Escape Tunnel on your home device. A link will be provided to all who register.

⇒ Sunday, March 9 at 2:00 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

Paula S. Apsell, left, got her start in broadcasting at WGBH Boston, where she joined NOVA, a documentary series that has set the standard for science programming. In 1985, she was asked to take over the reins at NOVA which she then ran for 33 years. During her tenure, NOVA won every major broadcasting award, most many times over. She has been recognized with numerous individual awards for her work, including the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Emmy. She holds honorary doctorates from Southern Methodist University and Dickinson College. She founded Leading Edge Productions to make documentaries of scientific, cultural, and historical importance. Her feature documentary Resistance – They Fought Back was broadcasted nationally on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Hana Amir, right, is the daughter of one of the protagonists of the Holocaust tunnel story, a story she first learned on a class trip to Yad Vashem when she was a senior in high school. Her father was one of the people who dug the tunnel and survived. Her family history led her to become a nurse, specializing in psychiatric care. Every year during Yom Hashoah, “Memory in the Living Room” takes place across Israel, where second generation Holocaust survivors tell their family stories to the next generation. This is something that Hana does every year to keep her family’s history alive.

Kirk Wolfinger, left, is an Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker who has produced, directed and executive produced over 200 hours of series and specials including Holocaust Escape Tunnel. His forte is adventure and science programming, a genre he has worked in since the 1990s. He has produced more than 30 NOVA specials on topics ranging from biological weapons to lost Nazi U-boats to climate change in Antarctica. He has worked closely with Nobel laureates, renowned oceanographers, archeologists, historians, astronauts and undersea explorers. In addition to Resistance: They Fought Back, His other independent documentary feature, The Rivals, received numerous film festival accolades including Best Documentary Feature at the Phoenix International Film Festival. 

Harry Jol, right, earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Simon Fraser University and Ph.D. from the University of Calgary. Harry is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and is presently a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire within the Department of Geography and Anthropology. He has conducted research with ground penetrating and other methods at over 1400+ sites around the world. In the past 10 years, he has developed a unique Holocaust Mapping Program in the Baltics that includes undergraduate student investigating mass execution/burial sites. His research has been highlighted by multiple news outlets such as New York Times, CNN, Fox Science News as well as numerous documentaries including BBC and NOVA.

Dr. Jud Newborn, left, who will moderate, was the Founding Historian of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage and is co-author of the acclaimed Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. A dramatic multimedia lecturer, he has spoken throughout North America, at the UN and worldwide. He was awarded his PhD with Distinction by the University of Chicago following three years of adventurous fieldwork as a Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, including hunting down former SS officers and working undercover during communist martial law in Poland. He was honored with the Anne Frank Center’s prestigious “Spirit of Anne Frank Award” and is the Emmy Award-winning Producer of Special Programs for Long Island’s Cinema Arts Centre.

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Registration for this program is closed.