The Children of Chabannes

1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK

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The Emmy® Award-winning The Children of Chabannes of Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell is the story of how the people in a tiny French village chose action over indifference, and risked their lives and livelihoods, to save more than 400 Jewish refugee children during World War Il. The Children of Chabannes is not only a story about the past. It’s an exploration of moral courage and goodness in the face of evil: of what motivates individuals to take a stand against injustice, bigotry and extremism. Lisa Gossels, whose father was one of the children rescued in Chabannes, will be joined on the panel by Holocaust child refugee Dr. Norman Bikales, who is featured in the film, and Dr. Mordecai Paldiel who oversaw the honoring of the Chabannes rescuers. 

“One of the most heartening Holocaust films ever made – splendid, informative and emotionally involving.”– Los Angeles Times

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THE SCHEDULE

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⇒ July 22-25, watch the film The Children of Chabannes on your home device. A link will be provided to all who register.

⇒ Sunday, July 24 at 4:00 p.m. US Eastern Time, tune into the program with our distinguished panel of guests.  A link will be provided to all who register.

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SEE THE TRAILER

MEET THE SPEAKERS

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Dr. Norbert Bikales was born in Berlin, Germany and was sent in 1939 on a Kindertransport to France. He spent most of the war years in various children’s homes in the care of OSE, a French Jewish welfare organization, as described in The Children of Chabannes. Toward the end of the war, he managed to escape over the mountains into Switzerland. He later learned that his parents had been murdered in Belzec. Norbert arrived in America at the age of seventeen and resumed his studies, which had been severely curtailed. He worked hard to support himself while studying for his high-school diploma, BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees. He had a successful, multifaceted career as a polymer chemist. He and his wife Gerda have two children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Lisa Gossels is an Emmy® Award-winning social issue documentarian whose films The Children of Chabannes and My So-Called Enemy screened at 100 film festivals, garnered 20 awards and aired on HBO and PBS. Lisa believes in the power of film to affect social change. After 25+ years in living New York City, where she was also a sought-after educator, consultant for documentarians, writer and grant writer, Lisa joined the Boston Jewish Film Festival as its Artistic Director in February of 2022.

Dr. Mordecai Paldiel led the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem from 1982-2007. His books include The Path of the Righteous, Sheltering the Jews, Saving the Jews, Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust, Saving One’s Own: Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust and The Righteous Among the Nations. He has taught at Yeshiva University and Touro College and serves on the Board of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. Thanks to his efforts, there is a square named for Aristides de Sousa Mendes and a street named for Raoul Wallenberg, both in Jerusalem. He is on the B’nai Brith committee honoring Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust.

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Registration for this program is closed.