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The U.S. and the Holocaust
4 PM LOS ANGELES • 7 PM NEW YORK
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The U.S. and the Holocaust is a three-part, six-hour PBS series directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, that examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.
Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During World War II
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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During the Second World War, some tens of thousands of Jewish children were saved from almost certain death by non-Jewish neighbors, friends, or even — in many cases — total strangers. These rescuers, men and women of uncommon decency, did everything from bringing Jewish children into their families under false identities to securing hiding places in closets, attics, or hastily-dug bunkers. What happened between these children, their parents, and their rescuers is the focus of Aviva Slesin‘s groundbreaking film, Secret Lives.
Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 7 PM LISBON
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Please join us for a film-and-discussion program featuring the award-winning docudrama Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story by Joel Santoni and starring Bernard Le Coq as the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes.
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No Place on Earth
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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An extraordinary story! In 1942, 38 men, women and children slid down a cold, muddy hole in the ground, seeking refuge from the war above in a pitch-black underground world where no human had gone before. These five Ukrainian Jewish families created their own society where young men bravely ventured into the harrowing night to collect food, supplies and chop firewood. The girls and women never left, surviving underground longer than anyone in recorded history. Held together by an iron-willed matriarch, after 511 days, the cave dwellers, ages 2 to 76, emerged at war’s end in tattered clothes, blinded by a sun some children forgot existed. Despite all odds, they had survived. (more…)
Heroes of the St. Louis
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Many people are familiar with the tragic story of the St. Louis ship, whose nearly 1000 Jewish passengers were turned back to Europe after they were refused entry by Cuba, Canada, and the United States. But few are aware of the bravery of the ship’s captain, Gustav Schroeder, who was declared a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, and of Morris Troper and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Thanks to their strenuous efforts, the passengers were permitted to disembark in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, rather than returning to Nazi Germany. As a result, the passengers had a chance of surviving the ordeal, and many hundreds of them did. Meet Dr. Hans Fisher, who was one of these survivors, and Scott Miller, who is a leading world expert on this story.
Sister Rose’s Passion
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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A celebration of the extraordinary life and work of Sister Rose Thering and her successful quest to rid Catholic School education of anti-Semitism. Rose was a young nun in the Dominican order, determined to stop the Catholic Church from teaching hate, and prove that the doctrine blaming Jews for the death of Jesus was irreconcilable with her notion of a loving God. Rose’s efforts paved the way for the historic Vatican II Council and the papal encyclical that reformed the Church’s teachings about Jews. She later became a renowned Holocaust educator and received the Courage to Care award from the Anti-Defamation League.
Meyer Weisgal — A Forgotten Zionist Visionary
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
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Meyer Weisgal was an American Zionist visionary who focused a spotlight on the urgent need to rescue the imperiled Jews of Europe in the 1930s. Through his determined, creative and often ingenious endeavors — including his production of a thick magazine celebrating the birth of the Hebrew University, his spectacular pageants The Romance of a People and The Eternal Road at Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair and on Broadway, respectively, and his conceptualization and management of the popular Jewish Palestine Pavilion at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair — Weisgal dedicated his life to the survival and flourishing of the Jewish people.
A Celebration of Life! The Rescue Mission of Mr. & Mrs. Kraus
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Heartwarming and uplifting! In the spring of 1939, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia, embarked on a risky and unlikely mission. Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, they rescued 50 Jewish children from Vienna and brought them to the United States.
Exodus — The Ship that Launched a Nation
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
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The story of the Exodus, the ship that carried 4,500 Jewish refugees from Europe to Palestine in 1947, encapsulates the essence of Israel’s creation — a journey, an exodus — from the hellish depths of the Holocaust to the exhilarating heights of independence and nationhood.
Symphony of Courage
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Symphony of Courage from filmmaker Beth Mendelson shines a light on Portugal as a safe haven once again for fleeing refugees. It tells the story of the evacuation of the students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) following the Taliban takeover, after music was outlawed. ANIM’s director Dr. Ahmad Sarmast worked with an international team of philanthropists, politicians, and musicians to facilitate their rescue to Lisbon — their new home, where they can play music once again in a free and open society.