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The Border of Truth
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Like so many children of survivors and refugees, author Victoria Redel grew up in the shadows of her parents’ different escapes from war. For a writer, such ambiguity is rich soil. Redel’s father left Europe with a visa authorized by the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes. From Lisbon he embarked on the Portuguese ship the Quanza and was among the 86 passengers retained on the ship in New York and then in Mexico to be sent back to Lisbon and then presumably to be repatriated into Nazi-occupied Belgium. The ship, after refueling with coal in Virginia, was saved by the remarkable efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt in outsmarting Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The Border of Truth is a fictionalized account of this dramatic story. (more…)
Rose Valland, the Art Spy
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 8 PM PARIS
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When the Nazis entered Paris, they stole artwork and other valuables from Jewish collectors, art dealers and ordinary families. The Jeu de Paume Museum became the main depot for the looted artwork. A young French curator named Rose Valland witnessed this massive spoliation, and she surreptitiously kept meticulous notes. Thanks to her action, thousands of these paintings were recovered after the war. She became one of the most decorated women in France but died a forgotten hero. (more…)
Shimon’s Returns
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
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The documentary film produced by Slawomir Grunberg and co-directed with Katka Reszke tells the story of Shimon Redlich, a hidden child during the Holocaust who returns to places from his childhood in Poland and the Ukraine to thank his rescuers.
“We are all Jews here” — The Story of Roddie Edmonds
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Footsteps of My Father, an award-winning film produced by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, presents the extraordinary story of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, the only American soldier recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
Shalom China
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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China has a long and storied Jewish history dating back to at least the eighth century. The Jews of Kaifeng, who disappeared through assimilation and intermarriage, are undergoing a resurgence with their descendants reclaiming their lost identities. There were also substantial communities, now lost, in Harbin and Shanghai. Many Austrian Jews also came to Shanghai seeking refuge from Nazi-occupied Europe, rescued by the Holocaust hero Feng Shan Ho, the “angel of Vienna.” Today, the Jewish population in China is approximately 2,500 people. Image: Page with names in Hebrew and Chinese from a Kaifeng Jewish prayer book, collection of the Klau Library in Cincinnati.
Not Idly By — Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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Best Documentary, Toronto Jewish Film Festival
In Not Idly By, filmmaker Pierre Sauvage explores the American reaction to the mass murder of the Jews of Europe. Most Americans believe that we didn’t know about the Holocaust until after it was over. Many assume that we couldn’t have done anything even if we had known. Meet Peter Bergson! A Palestinian Jew who had come to the U.S. in 1940, this firebrand led what came to be known as the Bergson Group, whose protest campaigns helped shatter the silence surrounding the Holocaust. Prominently featured in the film are extended excerpts from the legendary 1943 production by Ben Hecht and Kurt Weill, We Will Never Die. In addition to Sauvage, our panel includes Dr. Rebecca Kook (daughter of Bergson), Dr. Rafael Medoff, and moderator Dr. Mordecai Paldiel.
Albert Einstein — Still a Revolutionary!
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
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Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist of all time, was also the most famous refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe. An anti-war firebrand, Einstein also spoke out on issues ranging from women’s rights and racism to immigration and nuclear arms control. Using a wealth of rarely-seen archival footage, correspondence, and new and illuminating interviews, filmmaker Julia Newman makes the case that Einstein’s example of social and political activism is as important today as are his brilliant, ground-breaking theories.
Jews in Jamaica — Finding Safe Harbor
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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The Caribbean island of Jamaica has had a Jewish community since Jews found refuge there during the Inquisition. Meet Ainsley Cohen Henriques, prominent leader of Jewish Jamaica whose family has lived on the island for generations. Author Joan Arnay Halperin will share the little-known story of Jews who found a safe but temporary refuge in Jamaica after escaping from Nazi-occupied Europe. The program will be moderated by Professor Shulamit Reinharz of Brandeis University.
Mothers of Exile — Emma Lazarus and Lady Liberty
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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This Mother’s Day program pays tribute to the twin “mothers of exile” — the poet Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty.
Saving Italy: The Rescue of Nazi-Looted Art
12 PM LOS ANGELES • 3 PM NEW YORK
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Beginning in September of 1943, Italy became one of the prime sites for the Nazi plunder of art and cultural treasures. Follow a team of investigative art researchers from the Monuments Men Foundation as they pursue every possible lead to search for artwork and gold looted in Italy by the Nazis. Photo: A painting by Italian master Bernardo Luini stolen by the Hermann Göring Tank Division from the Abbey of Montecassino in Italy and recovered in Altaussee, Austria, 1945. Thomas Carr Howe papers, Archives of American Art.