A Live Program on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The scene is seared in Irene Weiss’s memory. One minute she was holding hands with her younger sister. The next, a Nazi officer separated them with his baton, and 11-year-old Edith was swallowed into a crowd, unknowingly bound for a gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Decades later, Irene discovered the most painful moment of her life had been documented by a Nazi photographer. She saw her 13-year-old self, wearing a scarf and leaning forward, searching for Edith.
As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Irene will share the story of the day her family was torn apart.
The movie depicts a Sonderkommando (Jewish prisoners who worked in the crematoriums) in Auschwitz. The Sonderkommando believes to have found his son’s dead body and is determined to give him a proper Jewish burial. This harrowing tale won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Pluto TV.
“Judgment at Nuremberg” is exactly what it sounds like– a movie about the Nuremberg Trials. With an all-star cast (Judy Garland plays Irene Hoffman), the film is about four Nazi judges who put on trial and testimonies are heard from a variety of sources. This movie won two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes.
A compelling film that documents what happened in the US during the Holocaust, and how a young activist, Peter Bergson, challenged Washington and the Jewish establishment to demand the rescue of Europe’s Jews. Through a never before seen 1977 interview, Bergson gives a first-hand account of what occurred. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman. Streaming on iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google, Play, and Tubi.
With a run time of nine hours, this groundbreaking film can be your entire activity for Tisha Ba’Av. “Shoah” is a compilation of testimonies from survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators of the Holocaust– the film is often referred to as the greatest documentary ever made. Director Claude Lanzmann conducted these interviews, refusing to use Nazi archival footage. The documentary is incredibly educational and especially important now as Holocaust survivors age and Holocaust denial grows. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video or watch on YouTube.
Thought to be Meryl Streep’s greatest performance, “Sophie’s Choice” shows the effects of the Holocaust. Specifically, being forced to make the abominable choice between the lives of her two children. The movie includes flashbacks to the Holocaust as well as “present-day” scenes which are 1940s Brooklyn. The movie won seven major awards including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.
Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who lost 89 family members, helped track down over 1,100 Nazi war criminals and spent six decades fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people. Watching early efforts of the U.S. government prosecuting Nazi war criminals he realized, “There is no freedom without justice.” Narrated by Nichole Kidman. Streaming on iTunes, Google Play, and Kanopy.
“Woman in Gold” is the true story of Maria Altman fighting to reclaim her family’s possessions before the Holocaust. Among her family’s old assets is a Klimt portrait of Altman’s aunt. The painting is regarded as a national treasure for Austria, making Altman’s mission all the more difficult. The scenes switch from wartime to the present day allowing the viewer to understand the full picture of how the paintings were taken during the war, the pain of loss, and how survivors live with the memories of their destroyed lives and families. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
When thinking of Holocaust movies, “Schindler’s List” is typically the first to come to mind. The movie portrays the real story of how Oskar Schindler saved more than 1,000 Jews in Poland during the Holocaust. Although Schindler was a member of the Nazi party, Schindler witnessed the atrocities his Nazi associates inflicted on the Jews and his Jewish assistant urged him to help the cause. Director Steven Spielberg, who is Jewish, used black and white to replicate actual Nazi footage from the time, taking you inside a concentration camp to witness the horrors that were endured. The ending of the film shows the real life characters placing stones at Schindler’s grave in Israel. Streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV.
Unknown stories of resistance during WWII including a rabbi’s son who disguised himself as a Major in the SS to save Jews; a young woman involved in the plot to blow up the Crematorium at Birkenau; a Jew who defied Eichmann, devising an extraordinary scheme for 40,000 Jews to get to Palestine. Narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley. Streaming on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.
Winner of the 1997 Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary
Germany’s defeat signaled the war was over. American, British, and Russian soldiers liberated Nazi death camps, uncovering the horror of the Holocaust. Thousands of starving, half-dead Jewish survivors are freed from Nazi persecution. Those who try to return home are met with anti-Semitism. Narrated by Morgan Freeman. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
The movie tells the true survival story of a Polish musician during the Holocaust. Losing his whole family, Wladyslaw Szpilman attempts to survive in Poland. The graphic violence in the film allows the viewers to bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. “The Pianist” won three Academy Awards along with many others. Streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” depicts a fictional friendship between two young boys. One was a Jewish prisoner in a concentration camp and the other was the German son of the commandant of the camp. The two boys become friends while separated by a barbed wire fence. The movie won many awards including three British Independent Film Awards. Streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
This movie depicts a Jewish Italian family’s struggle during the Holocaust. When the father and son get separated from the mother, the father uses humor to shield his son from the terrors surrounding them. The film won three Academy Awards. The use of humor in this horrific story allows a new perspective. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
“The Book Thief” presents a different perspective of the Holocaust, as it is about a German family during the Holocaust. Liesel, who lives with a foster family, learns to read and begins stealing books from the mayor’s house. While she is on her own journey through literature, the family is struggling to get by, especially since they have taken a Jewish boy into hiding. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Liberation tells the dramatic story of the battle waged on two fronts during World War II – the Allied campaign to liberate Europe and Hitler’s genocidal campaign against the Jews. Narrated by Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart, Jean Boht and Whoopi Goldberg. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Winner of the 1981 Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary
The first Holocaust documentary to receive an Academy Award® and it remains today a chilling, heartbreaking testament to the strength and suffering of the Jewish people and the courage and heroism of those who came to their aid. Narrated by Elizabeth Taylor & Orson Welles. Streaming on iTunes, Google Play, Kanopy, and Amazon Prime Video.
