11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

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The great French mime Marcel Marceau was the son of a kosher butcher who was murdered at Auschwitz. Following his father’s deportation, Marcel joined the French Resistance, assisting his cousin Georges Loinger in escorting Jewish children from Nazi-occupied France to neutral Switzerland. He used his artistry and charisma to engage with the children and keep them quiet during their long and perilous trek to freedom. Later he gave his first major performance to 3000 US troops after the liberation of Paris in August 1944.

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11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

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Ruth Beckermann‘s film The Waldheim Waltz is about truth, lies and how a dishonest man can rise to power. The film documents the process of uncovering former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s wartime past. It shows the swift succession of new allegations by the World Jewish Congress during his Austrian presidential campaign, the denial by the Austrian political class, the outbreak of anti-Semitism and patriotism, which finally led to his election. Created from international archive material and what Beckermann shot at the time, the film shows that history repeats itself time and time again. Winner of the Berlin International Film Festival.

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1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK

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Szmul Artur Zygielbojm was a Polish Jewish socialist politician and member of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London during World War II. A lifelong activist, he is most famous for his final act of protest to the world against the indifference of the Allies to the fate of Europe’s Jews. In this richly multimedia and life-affirming film-and-discussion program, Dr. Jud Newborn interweaves his thrilling discovery of Zygielbojm’s lost artifacts with an elegy to the lost world of the Jewish shtetl.

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11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

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Nowadays, 90 years after Hitler seized power, Germany has a vibrant remembrance culture aimed at raising public consciousness about the crimes of the past and the importance of standing up against bigotry and in support of democracy. Much of the most meaningful work is being done by unsung volunteers in towns and villages across the country. 

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11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

This prizewinning film tells the touching and heartwarming stories of Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia saved in England in 1938-39 under the Kindertransport program, prior to the onset of World War II.

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11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

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This is the true story of an American photographer determined to record the bravery and compassion of Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. It is also the story of an Albanian Muslim who must fulfill a promise his father made to the Jewish family they sheltered. Their meeting sets in motion an extraordinary and unexpected drama that bridges generations and religions … uniting fathers and sons, Muslims and Jews.
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11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

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This program tells the story of the Jewish hero Salomon “Sally” Noach, who is remembered as the “angel” of the city of Lyon, France. He acted at great personal risk to rescue Jews who had been already captured by the Gestapo.  See a new film about him that will touch your heart, and then meet his son along with one of the people that he saved.

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11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

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Wilfrid Israel, a Berlin department store magnate and art collector, was German Jewry’s “secret ambassador” to England from 1938-43. He worked with the British diplomat/spy Frank Foley, Righteous Among the Nations, to secure life-saving British visas for thousands of German Jews and was the “essential link” in the establishment of the Kindertransport operation. He also was a key benefactor of the Youth Aliyah movement and was a co-founder of Kibbutz Hazorea.  Time and again, he had opportunities to remain safe in England or Palestine, and yet he kept going back to Germany to rescue more Jews. On his last rescue mission, Wilfrid Israel was shot down by the Wehrmacht over the English channel. Albert Einstein said of the businessman, “Never in my life have I come in contact with a being so noble, so strong and as selfless as Wilfrid Israel.”  A fascinating and multilayered life! (more…)