Video Collection

Back to main menu

Survivors, Children of Survivors, and Witnesses

60 Minutes: Hiding from Death
The genocide in Rwanda in 1992 killed 800,000 people, almost wiping out the Tutsi minority tribe. Among the survivors is Immaculee Ilibagiza, an inspiring Tutsi woman who hid from Hutu attackers. Along with six other women, Ilibagiza was crammed into a tiny bathroom for three months, often within earshot of the killers. Ilibagize returns to Rwanda with correspondent Bob Simon, shows him her hiding place, and recalls this time of terror. 13 minutes. DVD only.

60 Minutes: Hitler's Secret Archives
The largest archive of Nazi documents is in Bad Arolson, Germany, where 50 million files detail the horror endured by 17.5 million victims of the Third Reich. Among the victims whose stories are held here: Anne Frank and the Jews on Schindler's list. Scott Pelley travels to the immense archive with three Jewish Holocaust survivors who see, for the first time, the detailed paperwork the Nazis kept on their torturous imprisonment. DVD only. Airdate: 12/17/06

About The Holocaust
A young American woman, daughter of a survivor of the Nazi death camps, tells about her search for knowledge of the Holocaust and explains why the study of the Holocaust is important now. It includes firsthand accounts from a number of survivors as well as documentary footage. (30 Min)

All But My Life
Gerda Weissmann Klein, 2007 Cohen Center Holocaust Memorial Lecturer. All But My Life is the World War II memoir by Gerda Weissmann Klein. In these pages, she recollects when the Nazis arrived in Poland on September 3, 1939. She was imprisoned in German work camps until the camp was liberated on May 7, 1945. Gerda was born and raised in Poland; and she probably would have lived peacefully in her hometown her whole life--if the Nazis hadn't invaded and taken her from her home in Bielitz. Her journey is not an easy one; she is one of the few who survived. Holocaust stories are nothing new. The Diary of Anne Frank--along with other memoirs and autobiographical works--depict the Nazi occupations, marches, death camps, and other atrocities. These personal stories are important because they add the human dimension to the history of a time. Gerda saw everything stripped away--"all but her life." Her life was shattered; and her experiences were such horrors. Friends, family, home--all was lost; inextricably gone. But, then... life goes on. She married one of the men who liberated her from the camp. She went on with life, and she manages to infuse her faith and passion for life into this tale of survival. BOOK ON TAPE.

Angels Of Austria: The Church That Reached Out To Holocaust Survivors
An unusual group of Christians attempt to reverse eight centuries of Antisemitism in their hometown by inviting Jewish Holocaust survivors formerly of Wiener Neustadt to return for a "Week of Reconciliation" in 1995. Judy Faust accompanies her mother and together they embark on an emotional roller coaster ride of grief, compassion, friendship, and healing. The Ichthys Church (or Free Church) takes them on a tour of places that mark centuries of Jewish life: synagogues, museums, cemeteries, as well as escorting them to The House of Parliament to be honored by the Austrian mayor, but the moment of healing for Judy's mother happens when sharing her story to a high school assembly where students listen to Holocaust survivors for the first time. From the initial tentative moments to the last joyous laughter, viewers will share the difficult and rewarding journey towards forgiveness and compassion for both the returning Jews and the Christian hosts (many who were descendants of former Nazis). Together they willingly explore their painful past while creating new milestones that they hope will mark an era of friendship and understanding. 37 mins. DVD only.

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
Auschwitz occupies a chilling and disturbing place in the history of humankind. It began as a Nazi labor campt to terrorize the local Polish population and evolved intothe site of the largest mass murder ever recorded. This six-part series, narrated by actress Linda Hunt presents an in-depth examination of the camp's evolution and the decisions that enabled such an incomprehensibly inhuman place to come into being. Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State is the result of three years of research, drawing on the close involvement of world experts, recently discovered documents and nearly 100 interviews with camp survivors and perpetrators, many of whom are speaking on the record for the first time. Their stories are brought to life through the innovative use of archive footage, dramatic recreations of key decision-making moments, and their extraordinary testimony. While never losing sight of the suffering of the victims, this documentary offers a unique and alarming look at the mindset of the perpetratos - killers like the Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoess, camp doctor Josef Mengele, and SS Commander Heinrich Himmler. Written and produced by laurence Rees, the Creative Director of BBC History Programs. The historical and script consultant for the series is the award-winning Hitler biographer, Professor Ian Kershaw. DVD only. See http://www.keene.edu/cchs/t_resources/Inside%20the%20Nazi%20State.pdf for clips for classroom useage.

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (Educator's Edition)
In January and February 2005, Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State, a six-hour documentary television series, aired on U.S. public television and the BBC in Great Britain. The series chronologically explores the evolution of Auschwitz and introduces perpetrators from all levels of the Nazi bureaucracy who were involved in the design, construction, and administration of the camp. Interspersed is the testimony of Holocaust survivors. This Educator's Edition DVD-ROM is a comprehensive multimedia teaching tool designed to serve the needs of secondary, postsecondary, adult educators and students. Featuring video segments from the original documentary series, the DVD-ROM includes printiable primary materials that correlate to national curriculum standards. Included on this disc: 27 video segments from the seies, with discussion questions; 122 photographs; 25 maps and charts; 28 background readings; 19 primary resources; 14 l;iterary extracts; 4 complete units, with detailed lesson lans.

Bear Witness
Fourteen people who live in one small community on the Virginia Peninsula witnessed first hand the greatest atrocity in world history, the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews. Jewish Survivors who lived in the concentration camps and Nazi occupied territories join American soldiers who liberated those camps to bear witness to Adolf Hitler's murderous rampage. In To Bear Witness/A Living Testimonial of the Holocaust, Writer/Director Eric Allan Futterman unfolds the story of how, on a day to day basis, Hitler and his Nazi regime built a wall around the lives of German and European Jews, whittling away their rights, one by one, until they had none. In this highly educational documentary, Futterman goes beyond the breathtaking stories of fear and survival and asks how this could happen in what at the time was deemed a highly civilized and educated society. This beautifully photographed documentary is also broken up in parts, making it ideal for teachers and professors from middle school to college to impart well researched and first hand historical information to their students. For students of history this documentary creates valuable testimony from eyewitnesses to the world's most significant conflict. VHS.

Breaking The Silence
This video focuses on nine members of a Second Generation group who meet regularly to discuss their shared legacy - as children of Holocaust Survivors. They learn that their parents, by resorting to silence about the past, erected barriers that had a lasting effect on their families' lives. This group gives the children the strength to break the silence. (JHS/MS+). (58 min)

Confronting the Truth: Truth Commissions and Societies in Transition
Confronting the Truth shows how countries, which have experienced massive human rights violations, have created official, independent bodies known as truth commissions. Since 1983, truth commissions have been established in over 20 countries, in all parts of the world. Confronting the Truth documents the work of truth commissions in South Africa, Peru, East Timor, and Morocco. Taking testimony from victims and perpetrators, and conducting detailed investigations, truth commissions create a historical record of abuses that have often remained secret. They identify patterns of abuse, and the structural and institutional weaknesses, and societal and cultural problems, and weak legal systems that made the violation possible. To remedy these faults, they recommend governmental, societal and legal reforms to address the pain of the past, to safeguard human rights and due process, and to ensure that the horror will not be repeated. 73 minutes. DVD only.

Dark Lullabies
At a reunion of German concentration camp survivors, interviews with children of these survivors show how painful experiences of the camps have affected their offspring in many different ways. The daughter of survivors of Dachau concentration camp travels to Israel and Germany to gain an understanding of her parents' experience. Now in their twnties and thirties, many children of survivors "the second generation" feel deeply affected by their parents' ordeal, just as their German contemporaries live with a burden of confusion and guilt about the crimes of their parents' generation. (HS+) (58 min)

Dear Kitty
In this film the life of Anne Frank is told with quotations from her diary together with images of the place where she was hiding, photos from the family album and historical film material. To make it understandable what happened to this well known girl, some historical background is given. Atrocities are not shown. Intended for students ages 8-13 years. (25 min)

Drancy: A Concentration Camp in Paris 1941-1944
During WWII, France deported 74,000 Jews to Nazi death camps. Fewer than 3,000 survived. This award-winning documentary describes, in detail, the structure of the Holocaust in France. It identifies individuals and organizations responsible, and provides exact information as to when, where and how mass arrests were organized. It explains how, in full view of the French public, Jews were taken from Drancy, a half-built housing estate in Paris, and put on French trains bound for Auschwitz. The film's interviewees are survivors and eye-witnesses who give first-hand accounts of what happened. This one-hour film is now available on DVD and is essential for anyone wanting to understand how the Holocaust was implemented. 52 minutes. DVD only.

Eagles Over Auschwitz: "The Triumph of the Return"
Eagles Over Auschwitz is the compelling story of the historic flyover of Auschwitz-Birkenau by three Israeli F-15s. Meet Yitzhak Cohen, a survivor of the camp, and Al Weber, and American Jewish aviator who flew over Auschwitz on a bombing mission with the 15th Army Air Force on September 13, 1944. Hear their personal reflections of that time and watch with the officers of the IDF as the F-15s fly over the camp on September 4, 2004. Produced by Yad Vashem. 26 minutes.

The Eighty-First Blow
Consisting of footage and stills shot by the Nazis, this award-winning 1974 production chronicles the measures taken to exterminate the Jews. The video takes its title from a story about a Jewish boy in one of the ghettos who was struck with 80 blows. He survived and immigrated to Israel where no one believed his story - this for him was the 81st blow. Note: May have some graphic footage. (JHS/MS+). Color. (115 min)

Elie Wiesel Goes Home
This compelling and touching film follows Nobel Peace Prize winner and acclaimed author, Elie wiesel, as he returns to Sighet, the village of his birth in what was part of Hungary during World War II. Now, fifty years later, elie wiesel returns to his homeland and walks down the same roads he walked as a child. He then continues on to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the camp from which he was liberated at the end of the war. ELIE WIESEL GOES HOME takes us on an emotional and compelling journey that tells the story of the man whose voice speaks out for victims of oppression all over the world. (2002. 108 minutes.)

The Exiles
From 1933 until 1941, large numbers of scholars, intellectuals and artists fled Europe for America as totalitarianism took hold in Germany and Italy, as well as those nations that fell to Nazi occupation. The story of these émigrés, many of who found refuge together with safe haven for their talents and energies in the United States. (HS+) Color & B/W. (116 min)

Fate Did Not Let Me Go
August 24, 1942. Trapped by history, a loving mother writes a farewell letter to her son just days before she dies in the Thereseinstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust. Lost for nearly 50 years, the letter mysteriously reaches her son in 1985 when he is 79 years old. This film shares the inspiring story of Valli Ollendorf and her timeless letter to her son Ulrich. More than a mother's farewell, the letter's message of faith, hope and love stands as a triumph of the human spirit in history's darkest hour. For years, the letter remianed a family secret. When Ulrich passed away, his family asked their rabbi to read the letter at his eulogy. The impact of the letter - and its expression of love that transcended time and space and even death itself - was so great that the family realized it was much more than a private letter. It was a letter that could inspire every pewrson it touched. Cast: Martin Sheen, Liv Ulmann "Her voice, like Anne Frank's voice, will be heard for generations." - Martin Sheen 30 minutes.

Fateless
Set in 1944, as Hitler's Final Solution becomes policy throughout Europe, Fateless is the semi-autobiographical tale of a 14 year-old Jewish boy from Budapest, who finds himself swept up by cataclysmic events beyond his comprehension. A perfectly normal metropolitan teen who has never felt particularly connected to his religion, he is suddenly separated from his family as part of the rushed and random deportation of his city's large Jewish population. Brought to a concentration camp, his existence becomes a surreal adventure in adversity and adaptation, and he is never quite sure if he is the victim of his captors, or of an absurd destiny that metes out salvation and suffering arbitrarily. When he returns home after the liberation, he missed the sense of community he experienced in the camps, feeling alienated from both his Christian neighbors who turned a blind eye to his fate, and the Jewish family friends who avoided deportation and who now want to put the war behind them. Based on the autobiographical novel by Hungarian Nobel Laureate Imre Kertész and built in vignettes. DVD. 140 minutes

Flames In The Ashes
An examination of the many ways that Jews resisted the Nazis. Over documentary footage, the voices of those who survived the war are woven together to give viewers a sense of the differing dimensions of Jewish resistance in Europe before and during World War II. Note: May have some graphic footage. (JHS/MS+). B/W. (90 min)

For Tomorrow: The Story and Poetry of Hilda Stern Cohen
The story of Hilda Stern Cohen (1924-1997), a Holocaust survivor, poet, and Jewish educator. Her remarkable life spans an idyllic childhood in a small rural village in Germany, the horrors of the Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz, the limbo of a displaced persons camp in Austria, and the redemptive value of spirituality and a reclaimed Jewish identity in post World-War II America. A unique experiment in telling stories of the Holocaust for future generations. Special features include Elizabeth Bolton's performance of song settings of nine poems by Hilda Stern Cohen, as composed by William Gilcher. 90 minutes. DVD.

Genocide; The World At War, Vol. 20
A documentary that tells the story of Hitler's "Final Solution" and exposes the methodical destructiveness of the Nazi era. Set within the historic frame, from 1920 to 1945, this film exposes the methodical insanity of the Nazi era. Extraordinary footage and interviews with death camp survivors, as well as with Germans who were directly involved in implementing the "Final Solution." Narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. (JHS/MS/HS+). Color & B/W. (52 min)

Ghosts of Rwanda
Rwanda was supposed to be easy. Ten years ago, when the United Nations sent peacekeepers to this small, Central African nation, most of the policymakers involved believed it would be a straightforward mission that would help restore the UN's battered reputation after failures in Bosnia and Somalia. Few could imagine that, a decade later, Rwanda would be the crisis that still haunts their sould. This documentary marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide - a state-sponsored massacre in which some 800,000 Rwandans were methodically hunted down and murdered by Hutu extremistis as the United States and international community stood by, refusing to intervene. Through interviews with key government officials, diplomats, soldiers, and survivors of the slaughter, GHOSTS OF RWANDA offers groundbreaking, firsthand accounts of the genocide from those who lived it: the diplomats on the scene who thought they were building peace only to see their colleagues murdered; the Tutsi surviors, who recount the horror of seeing their friends and family members slaughtered by Hutu friends and co-workers; and the UN peacekeepers in Rwanda who were ordered not to intervene in the massacre happening all around them. The documentary features interviews with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, and former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake as well as haunting interviews with the Hutu killers themselves. GHOSTS OF RWANDA also examines the aftermath of the genocide, the lessons learned - and not learned - by the international community, and questions whether the phrase "never again" has more meaning today than it did ten years ago. A FRONTLINE production. 120 minutes, color, DVD only.

Hitler's Secret Archive - (60 Minutes)
The largest archive of Nazi documents is in Bad Arolson, Germany, where 50 million files detail the horror endured by 17.5 million victims of the Third Reich. Among the victims whose stories are held here: Anne Frank and the Jews on Schindler's list. Scott Pelley travels to the immense archive with three Jewish Holocaust surviors who see for the first time the detailed paperwork the nazis kept on their torturous imprisonment. This aired on 60 Minutes on 12/17/06. DVD.

Holocaust Aftermaths: Holocaust Survivors, Their Children and Memory
27:20 mins

Holocaust Survivor Testimonies
This collection of 4 DVDs was recorded at the International Winter Seminar in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem between January 10-January 24, 2007. DVD 1: The Valley of Communities: Pre-War Jewish Life. Hanna Pick (Germany-Holland - Childhood friend of Anne Frank), Ruth Brand (Romania/Hungary). Approx. 40 mins. DVD 2: A workshop with three Holocaust survivors facilitated by Moshe Sternberg. Israel Orzach (Poland), Elisheva Lehman (Holland), Rina Quint (Poland). Approx 120 mins. DVD 3: A testimony on Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, and life after liberation by Ruth Brand (Romania/Hungary-Auschwitz). Approx. 75 mins. DVD 4: A visit to the grave of Oskar Schindler on Mt. Zion with Nachum and Genya Manor (Schindler Jews). Approx. 60 mins.

The Holocaust: A Teenager's Experience
Holocaust survivor David Bergman, only 12 years old when the Nazis forced his family from their home, takes viewers along his "road from hell to freedom." Illustrated with archival footage and drawings, this affecting program describes how young David was separated from his family at Auschwitz, forced into labor at several work camps, survived a harrowing train journey on which all but three passengers died, and eventually witnessed the German surrender. Warning: Some graphic footage. (30 min)

The Holocaust: Through Our Own Eyes
A videotape testimony project which chronicles the experiences of dozens of Holocaust witnesses, beginning with their lives before the war and culminating with their arrivals in the United States. Edited from first-hand accounts by survivors, concentration camp liberators, and other witnesses now residing in the Midwest, these testimonies are supplemented with archival photographs and footage. Compelling narrative provides an overview of the history of the Holocaust, beginning with the end of World War I. Intended for general adult audiences. May be appropriate for high school students with proper preparation. (HS+) (58 min)

The Holocaust: When God Looked Down
The personal story of Holocaust survivor Alex Scharf. 3 videocassettes

In Rwanda We Say...The Family that does not Speak, Dies
Emmy Award-winner (2005) Since 1999, award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion has traveled to rural Rwanda, to chart the impact of that country's efforts at ethnic reconciliation. In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies, her second film on the subject, continues Aghion's quest to learn how the human spirit survives a trauma as unfathomable as the attempt, in 1994, to wipe out the Tutsi minority, with 800,000 lives claimed in 100 days. In Rwanda we say... is the next chapter in a fascinating and intimate look at how, and whether, people can overcome fear, hatred and deep emotional scars, to forge a common future after genocide. Aghion's influential 2002 film, Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda? captured the feelings of both survivors and alleged killers in the remote community of Ntongwe, just as the government was announcing the Gacaca (ga-CHA-cha), a new system of citizen-based justice intended to handle over 100,000 genocide suspects languishing in detention. In Rwanda we say...returns two years later as close to 16,000 of these suspects, still untried, are released across the country: having confessed to their crimes, and served the maximum sentence the Gacaca will eventually impose, suspects of appalling crimes are sent home to plow fields and fetch water alongside the people they are accused of victimizing. In Rwanda we say... focuses on the release of one suspect, and the effect of his return on this tiny hillside hamlet. While the government's message of a "united Rwandan family" infiltrates the language of the community, reactions to this imposed co-existence reel from numb acceptance to repressed rage. Violence seems to lurk just below the surface. What unfolds, however, is an astonishing testament to the liberating power of speech: little by little, people begin to talk in a profound and articulate way - first to the camera, and then to each other -- as these neighbors negotiate the emotional task of accepting life side by side. 54 minutes. DVD.

In the Tall Grass: Inside the citizen-based justice system Gacaca
In the Tall Grass picks up where Hotel Rwanda left off, focusing on the Hutu and Tutsi as they struggle through Rwanda's unique reconciliation process Gacaca, a network of grassroots community courts. With unprecedented access, this powerful documentary follows a survivor through this historic process as she confronts the man she says murdered her husband and children, giving audiences a stark and terrifying look at how the genocide of 1994 continues to shape the lives of Rwandans today. She receives some justice, and her village finally faces their pain, but she is only one story in hundreds of thousands. In the Tall Grass delivers a raw and uncompromising look at the tremendous challenges faced by post-genocide countries like Rwanda, as they transition from violence to peace.

Jehovah's Witnesses: Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault
As the Nazi killing machine engulfed Europe with terror, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses suffered brutal persecution. Why? Because they stood firm in their beliefs and boldly spoke out against the cruelty of Nazism. In this video, 10 historians from Europe and North America and over 20 witness survivors, join in relating a story of courage. (JHS/MS+). Color. (78 min.)

A Journey Back
In the company of reporter, Eric Malling, Broadway producer Jack Garfein, who is a Holocaust survivor, travels back to Auschwitz, where he was separated from his family at the age of thirteen, and to his Slovakian hometown of Bardejov, where he visits an aged family friend and the town's ruined synagogue. Interweaves archival documents, stills, and footage, with scenes of Garfein's journey in order to piece together a shattered past and find answers as to why and how the Holocaust occurred. (General Audiences). B/W & Color. (60 min.)

Kaddish: I Am Here
On September 8, 2011, a unique concert featuring the stirring words of Holocaust survivors, performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra - IBA, soloists and choirs from Israel and the United States, and conducted by Gil Shohat took place at Yad Vashem. Kaddish - I Am Here was originally commisisoned to honor the 25th anniversary of the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College.

Keepers of Memory: Survivors' Accounts of the Rwandan Genocide
Through eyewitness accounts and gripping footage, acclaimed director Eric Kabera takes the viewer on an emotional journey into the 1994 Rwandan genocide, its survivors, and the memorials created in the victims' honor. The film focuses on the personal accounts of men and women who watch over the sacred burial sites keeping the memories alive for future generations. They tell a tale of unimaginable pain and loss that is both inspirational and thought provoking as they bravely face the future and rebuild their lives. DVD. 52 minutes

Kitty: Return To Auschwitz
From the ages of 16 to 18, Kitty Hart lived in the Auschwitz death camp. Director Peter Morley accompanies Kitty and her son David as she returns to Auschwitz for the first time since her liberation from the camp 35 years previously. The camera follows Kitty and her son as they walk through the remnants of the camp, recording her memories and her present-day impressions. (HS+). Color. (82 min.)

The Last Days
This film traces the compelling experiences of five Hungarian Holocaust survivors during the final days of World War II. Newly discovered historical footage and a rare interview with a form Nazi doctor at Auschwitz. 1998 Academy Award: Best Documentary. Steven Spielberg and The Shoah Foundation. (General Audience). Color. (87 mins)

The Last Klezmer
Klezmer music, sometimes called Jewish "soul" music has, a rich and lengthy past, and now, a revitalized future. This film looks at one of the pioneers of this music, a 69-year-old man named Leopold Kozlowski. He is the last active Klezmer musician trained in the original, prewar tradition. The film follows Kozlowski as he returns, for the first time in fifty years, to he Polish village where he was raised. (Adult). Color. (84 mins)

Life Unworthy of Life
Witnesses discuss: The Destruction of Families; The Kristallnacht and Ghettos; The 'Final Solution' and its Perpetrators; Planet Auschwitz; The Rescuers

Light From the Yellow Star
Introduction Dr. Fisch returns to Budapest and remembers saying goodbye to his father. Evolution Dr. Fisch talks about the meaning of color and images in his Holocaust paintings. Presentation In classroom presentations, Dr. Fisch focuses on what his story means in the lives of the students. Impact Teacher Neil Anderson talks about how students respond to Dr. Fisch.

The Long Way Home
For the majority of Holocaust survivors, World War II did not end with their liberation from Nazi concentration and death camps. As these personal accounts demonstrate, the battle to rebuild lives and human dignity continued long after the Allies' victory. The tumultuous years between 1945-1948, from liberation to the creation of the state of Israel, epitomized the challenges Holocaust survivors faced in recreating their identity from the remnants of their destroyed world. (General audience). Color. (116 minutes)

The Lost Children Of Berlin
In April 1942, the Gestapo closed the last Jewish school in Berlin. Half a century later, 50 of its former students traveled from around the world to the reopened school for an extraordinary reunion. The video weaves together the social and political events of the 1930s and 1940s detailing the Jewish life of pre-war Berlin. (General Audience). Color. (50minutes)

Maine Survivors Remember The Holocaust
This video offers a clear and compelling introduction to the Holocaust for general audiences. Interviews with eight Maine survivors and an American liberator are interwoven with dramatic archival films, photographs, maps, and music. This film is designed for a single classroom period and is appropriate for middle school and high school students. (JHS/MS/HS). Color & B/W. (43 mins)

Memories of Kristallnacht
The sounds of broken glass, on the eve of November 9, 1938, will be forever etched in the collective memory. It was the night that the Nazis publicly and blatantly announced to the world that they had declared open war on the Jewish people. Through archival footage, photographs and first hand interviews with witnesses, this video forms a sharp portrait of the time and the events. 57 mins. VHS.

Memory Of A Moment
In this MacNeil Lehrer Newshour segment, two men whose lives touched forty years ago are reunited on the anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald. Robert Waisman, who had been imprisoned in the German concentration camp, and Leon Bass, a black American who participated in the liberation of the camp, recall their experiences. As a black soldier in the segregated army, Bass, now a history teacher comments: "Human suffering is universal. Your pain is my pain." (JHS/MS+). B/W & color. (10 min.)

The Nazi Officer's Wife
In 1938, Edith Hahn was a Viennese law student, a "Christmas-tree Jew" with a gentile boyfriend. In 1942, she was living under an assumed name in Munich, married to Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who was later drafted into the Wehrmacht. Based on Hahn's acclaimed memoir, THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is the riveting account of how she survived the Holocaust by posing as an Aryan hausfrau. Despite the risks, she kept painstaking records, including real and falsified documents, and photos of labor camps. These moving artifacts, along with testimony from Hahn and her duaghter, bring this tale of survival, resilience, and redemption to life. From award-winning filmmakers Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is narrated by Susan Sarandon, with additional readings by Julia Ormond. DVD only. Approx. 100 minutes.

Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good
In the fall of 1938, Nicholas Winton took a pleasure trip to Prague, Czechoslovakia. He saw that Czech children in the Sudetenland were stateless. He understood that these refugee children would soon be doomed by Hitler. Although Winton was only 28 years old, he knew he had to take action. He devised a rescue operation to save these children. This inspiring and gripping documentary tells how an ordinary man took extraordinary action saving the lives of 669 children. Between March 13 and August 2, 1939, Winton organized eight transports to take children from Prague to Great Britain, and kept quiet about it until his wife discovered a scrapbook documenting his unique mission in 1988. This DVD of the film includes 70 minutes of extra interview footage and additional short films detailing further information on the rescue operation, the private life of Sir Winton, his opinions, and the lives of some of the children he saved. It is also presented with a teacher's guide that includes additional archival material and thought-provoking questions for class discussion. Winner of the International Emmy Award 2002 Color/64 Minutes (DVD only)

One Survivor Remembers
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Home Box Office presents this special tribute in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and the Second World War. Through a series of interviews, photographs and footage shot in the actual locations of her memories, Gerda Weissmann Klein takes us on a journey of survival trough one of the most devastating events in history of mankind. (General Audiences). Color. (39 min) VHS/DVD Teacher Guide available.

Out of the Ashes
Christine Lahti stars in this harrowing made-for-cable film based on the real-life story of Gisella Perl, a Jewish Hungarian doctor imprisoned in the notorious Auschwitz death camp of World War II. Perl's story is told in flashback as she sits before an immigration panel in the U.S. seeking American citizenship after the war. Facing her inquisitors' accusations of collaborating with the Nazis because of her work as camp doctor, Perl is forced to relive her horrifying experiences and the difficult moral choices she had to make in order to survive. Features supporting turns from Bruce Davison, Richard Crenna, and Beau Bridges as Lahti's INS interrogators. MPAA Rating: R 113 minutes. DVD only.

Present Memories
Journey back in time with six survivors of the Holocaust as they revisit this painful history. They focus on one specific period of their years under the Nazis. Linked together, the viewer journeys through the Holocaust from the prewar years to the end of World War II to freedom. The video concludes as the survivors relate their return to life. (55 min)

Primo
When PRIMO opened in September 2004 it was instantly recognized as a major theatrical event; every performance was sold out. A work of astounding dramatic power it brings to life Primo Levi's great testament to his year in Auschwitz. Antony Sher's towering performance is as controlled as Primo Levi's own lucid prose. Beautifully directed by Richard Wilson and presented in Hildegard Bechtler's magnificent, symbolist set. This is quite simply - masterpiece theatre. DVD only. 110 minutes.

Prisoner of Her Past
On the night of February 15, 2001, Sonia Reich fled her home in Skokie, Illinois, insisting that someone was trying to kill her -- to "put a bullet in [her] head," she told anyone who would listen. It would take a year for her son, Chicago Tribune journalist Howard Reich, to understand why she was running the streets of Skokie, fearing for her life. Prisoner of Her Past tracks Howard's journey across the United States and Eastern Europe to discover why his mother believes - to this day - that the world has conspired to try to execute her. As Howard eventually learned, Sonia has late-onset Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a little-known but extremely debilitating illness that has pushed her into the realm of delusion. At the same time, however, Sonia remains fully aware of her surroundings, totally alert to the world, thoroughly cognizant of the present. She has no hints of Alzheimer's disease or any form of dementia. On the contrary, as one doctor told Howard, "Dementia would be a relief for your mother, because then she wouldn't remember." Unfortunately, Sonia's horrific childhood fleeing the Nazis -- about which she told Howard virtually nothing when he was growing up -- has come back to haunt her. She believes that yellow Stars of David have been sewn to her clothes, that doctors and nurses are trying to poison her, that her grandchildren have been taken away. Past and present merge in Sonia's perceptions, and Howard sets out to discover why. He locates the few experts in the world who can explain the obscure phenomenon of late-onset PTSD, and he travels to the city of Sonia's birth, in Ukraine, to uncover the horrors that now haunt his mother. But Prisoner of Her Past ventures beyond Sonia's story, to show what can be done to help traumatized children today. The film looks in particular at the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, an area of special interest to Howard, who's the Chicago Tribune's jazz critic. Some are benefiting from psychiatric awareness and techniques unavailable when Sonia and children of her generation were shattered. Prisoner of Her Past makes it clear that if childhood trauma victims, from New Orleans to Darfur, are not helped, they will be retracing Sonia's steps 60 years from now. 57 minutes. DVD only.

The Quarrel
This story, set in Montreal, details the resolution of an old conflict between two old friends - one who abandoned the Jewish faith of his heritage and the other, an orthodox rabbi who started a Yeshiva in Montreal. Both are survivors of the Holocaust, and they nurse the wounds of both the Holocaust and the fight they had the night one left Yeshiva for a life of worldly "freedom." Fiction. This reunion of two Holocaust survivors leads to a searing examination of the questions all must answer before they find a future. (Adult). Color. (90 min.)

Return to the Killing Fields
On April 12, 1975, soon after Lon Nol, Cambodia's President, had fled the country, the United States withdrew its forces from the capital. Sydney Schanberg, then a New York Times correspondent, and Dith Pran, his Cambodian assistant, stayed on to cover the story of the battle-scarred country under the control of the Khmer Rouge and their leader, Pol Pot. Eight days after the evacuation, Dith Pran was forced, with hundreds of thousands of other Cambodians, to march from Phnom Penh to the countryside. There, he was to endure almost four years of unremitting horrors. DVD only.

Reunion - 2004
From the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, this is the riveting story of Andre Nowacki, a child from the Warsaw Ghetto who was rescued by a Polish family. This brief film highlights life in the Warsaw ghetto and focuses on his 1994 Thanksgiviing reuinion with Hanna Kwiecinska Morawiecka, the daughter of the woman who rescued Andre. VHS. 12 minutes. Highly recommended.

Robert Clary: A5714, A Memoir Of Liberation
To many people, entertainer Robert Clary is best known for his role on television's "Hogan's Heroes." This film shows another side of the actor, that of a Holocaust survivor. It follows him as he returns to the streets of Paris, the railway lines of East Germany, and the Buchenwald concentration camp to retrace the odyssey of his teens. (JHS/MS+). Color. (60 min.)

Safe Haven: The Warsaw Zoo
In the opening days of World War II, the Nazis occupy Warsaw. In a display of extraordinary courage and commitment, Zookeeper Jan Zabinski decides to hide the city's most endangered residents in his home. Before war's end, the Warsaw Zoo will become a safe haven for 300 Jewish men, women, and children. DVD. 29 minutes

Secret Courage: The Walter Suskind Story
Walter Suskind was a German Jew living in Amsterdam who was forced to serve as the Jewish head of deportation at the Hollandsche Schouwburg (the Jewish Theater in Amsterdam), used as the main deportation site in Holland. Using his fluent German, his skills as an actor and businessman, and unfathomable courage and tenacity, he and an intrepid group of resitance workers orchestrated the escape of close to 1000 Dutch children who were marked for transport to death camps. In this feature-length documentary we learn about an unsung hero of the Holocaust in Holland, the Resistance members who worked with him, and five of the nearly 1,000 children they saved. Their stories are interwoven in a warm and personal style, creating a tale of moral dilemmas and unfathomable courage in the face of human horror and choiceless choices. 82 minutes. DVD only. http://www.morsephotography.com/suskindfilm/home_welcome.htm

Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WW II
Before the Second World War, more than 1.5 million Jewish children were living in Europe. By the end of the Holocaust, less than one in ten had survived. SECRET LIVES tells the emotional stories of a small number of those who were saved by non-Jews in extraordinary acts of bravery and kindness. These men and women of uncommon decency did everything from bringing Jewish children into their families to securing hiding places in closets, attics, or hastily dug bunkers. Directed by Academy Award winner and former hidden child Aviva Slesin, this captivating documentary reveals what happened between the children and their rescuers and shows ho this experience forever changed their lives. Highly recommended by the Coordinator of Educational Outreach. High School and up. DVD only. Color and B/W. 72 minutes.

Sighet, Sighet
Elie Wiesel returns to the Hungarian town of his birth, Sighet, where the entire Jewish population disappeared in German cattle cars. Wiesel movingly and poetically narrates the search of his past in a town that was a center of Jewish life but is no more. A low key film - suited to audiences knowledgeable about the facts of the Holocaust. (General audience). B/W. (74 min)

Skokie
Based on a true story, this powerful dramatization depicts how citizens of Skokie, Illinois - a small town with a higher than average percentage of Nazi death camp survivors - became divided over an impending street demonstration by neo-Nazis. Among the issues raised is free speech vs. social responsibility, reacting to racism, and becoming involved vs. remaining a bystander when confronted with a moral dilemma. Stars Danny Kaye, Carl Reiner, Eli Wallach, and Brian Dennehy. (JHS/MS+). Color. (121 min.)

Sorrow: The Nazi Legacy
A group of six Swedish teenagers, Jewish and non-Jewish, embark on a journey to Auschwitz in an effort to try to comprehend the incomprehensible. A preliminary visit to Wannsee sets the stage for their pilgrimage. Yet, no amount of intellectual explanation of the facts as they occurred can adequately prepare the gorup for their own emotional reactions after having spent time in auschwitz. A meeting with one of the camp's survivors, Ruth Elias, proves to be one full of pain and sorrow, yet full of hope for the future. The pilgrimage concludes as the group returns to Stockholm to a meeting with Niklas Frank, the son of Hans Frank, a high-ranking Nazi official who was the governor-general of nazi-occupied Poland. (HS). Color. (33 min.)

Survivors Of The Holocaust
From the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo, this film features the moving testimony of Holocaust survivors and the children of survivors. Interspersed with their narration, which details their lives before, during and after World War II, are photographs and footage actually shot in concentration camps. (JHS/MS+). Color & B/W. (25 min.)

Telling Their Stories: NH Holocaust Survivors Speak Out
As seen on NH Public Television, this film by NH filmmaker David DeArville highlights the lives of four Holocaust survivors who came to live in New Hampshire: Stephan Lewy (Germany), Joseph Regensburger (Germany), Ruth Segal (Poland) and Anna Berkovits Klein (Hungary). Stephan would escape in 1940 and would serve in Patton's Army as a "Ritchie Boy." Joe served in the French underground and eventually escaped to Switzerland - where he and his family were interned. Ruth would escape with the help of "Righteous Among the Nations" Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara although much of her family that was left behind died in Teblinka. Anna will survive the Nazi camp system including Stresshof and Bergen-Belsen. The film was produced by Robert Spiegelman and Fred Wolff in association with the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies. VHS or DVD. (65 minutes) *This film is free for NH teachers and libraries and may also be purchased by contacting Tom White, twhite@keene.edu, 603-358-2746.

The Hidden Child
Of the 1.6 million Jewish children who lived in Europe before WWII, only 100,000 survived the Holocaust. Most were hidden children, shuttered away in attics, cellars, convents or farms. This is the story of six-year-old girl (Maud Dahme) and her sister, separated from their parents, dodging bullets, lying for survival, and relying on the compassion of stragers. It is a story of courage, hope and bravery in the face of evil and death. It chronicles the wartime experiences of Dahme, one of an estimated 5,000 Jewish children hidden from the Nazis by righteous gentiles in the Netherlands. Dahme is the former president of the New Jersey Board of Education. This film explores issues such as intolerance, mutual respect, and understanding.

The Pianist
Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and winner of 3, THE PIANIST stars Oscar winner Adrein Brody in a true-life story of brilliant pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the most acclaimed young musician of his time until his promising career was interrupted by the onset of World War II. This powerful, ultimately triumphant film follows Szpilman's heroic and inspirational journey of survival with the unlikely help from a sympathetic German officer. A truly unforgettable epic, testifying to both the power of hope and resiliency of the human spirit, THE PIANIST is a miraculous tale of survival masterfully brought to life by visionary filmmaker Roman Pulanski in his most personal movie ever. DVD only. 150 minutes.

The Ritchie Boys
The story of German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany only to return as US Army intelligence soldiers. For the first time, the surviving 'boys' speak on camera about their rigorous intelligence training, their experience on the frontlines and their unit's special assignments. In never-seen archival footage, whose quality and colour are dazzling, the film tells of their courage and heroism. Note: Stephan Lewy of NH (Telling their Stories: NH Holocaust Survivors Speak Out) was one of these 'Ritchie Boys.' 93 minutes (DVD only)

The Truce
Based on the book, Primo Levi. Degreed in chemistry, Primo Levi was a Jewish socialist in Italy, where "racial laws" restricted Jewish freedom and prospects. Ten years after the writer's suicide, Francesco Rosi's English-language La tregua dramatized the 24-year-old Levi's long, arduous journey home to Turin after being liberated from Auschwitz, where he had spent fifteen months for anti-Fascist resistance activities. "[L]ost, emptied, atrophied-unfit for our newfound liberty": Levi thus describes himself and other death camp survivors. We hear this as voiceover as we look at his exhausted face. The war in Europe is nearing its end. Rosi's film proves an uneven odyssey, an exterior rendering of events burdened by profound interiority. It is the emotional account that's missing from Rosi's prodigious storytelling, even when the "emotion" involved is only a kind of numbness. Steeped in the tradition of neorealismo, Rosi isn't sufficiently modernist to provide an inside-out view of Levi, his stay at a Soviet "rehabilitation" camp, and his homeward trek. At the Soviet camp, a recording of someone (not Fred) singing "Cheek to Cheek" is prelude to a lovely, heart-grazing passage consisting of closeups of faces of those being "rehabilitated"-men and women making eye-contact, followed by their silent couplings on a makeshift dance floor, in one instance, with a girl's head in poignant rest on a boy's shoulder. Rosi's film, then, has its moments. Another also consists of a montage of haunted faces, with Levi and comrades coming upon a group of Germans. Voiceover: "We felt we had something to say . . . to every German, and every German had something to say to us." Levi's own words, from his autobiography, elevate the script. Rosi's closing freeze frame makes good use of John Turturro's drawn, somber face once Levi is seated in his study back home. DVD, 118 minutes, R

There Once Was a Town
In 1941, the German army invaded the small town of Eishyshok, Poland (now Lithuania) and brutally murdered nearly all 3,500 Jewish residents. Fifty-six years after the massacre, this video chronicles the remarkable journey of four of the town's survivors and their families as they return home. Actor Edward Asner, a descendant of an Eishyshok family, narrates the film. (General Audience). Color. (90 min) The powerful, award-winning documentary is based in part on professor Yaffa Eliach's critically-acclaimed book "There Once Was A World: A Nine Hundred Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok." Eliach leads the group of survivors and their family members in their search for remanants of Jewish life that flourished before the Holocaust. As they journey back in time, the survivors' memories come alive with vivid accounts of their lives before the war, their escape from the massacre, their years of fighting for survival and the questions that still linger. The world of the shtetl is illustrated through thousands of photographs that Eliach collected, now on display at the United States Holocaust memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (90 minutes)

Theresienstadt, Gateway To Auschwitz: Recollections From Childhood
Emotionally moving personal accounts from survivors of the infamous Czech ghetto which the Germans used during WWII as a "model ghetto" and as a transit camp for Jewish deportees en route to Auschwitz and other death camps. Blends the childhood recollections of these survivors with rare archival photos, paintings, drawings by ghetto inmates, excerpts from the children's opera Brundibar, which was performed there, and scenes from a survivor's reunion. (JHS/MS+). Color & B/W. (58 min.)

Through Our Eyes - Children of the Holocaust
Through poems, diaries and other writings, children give a first hand account of the Holocaust. Some of these children survived, others did not. Documentary footage from the Holocaust accompanied by actual eyewitness testimony of children caught up in the whirlwind. (JHS/MS+). B/W. (27 min.)

A Time To Gather Stones Together
This video follows a group of Jewish genealogists and holocaust survivors who returned to the area of Poland and Ukraine known as Galicia. their mission was to search for ancestral documents in State and local archives and to visit towns of family origin or places from which they had escaped the Holocaust. Tour director and noted genealogist Miriam Weiner, arranged for access to archives in Poland and Ukraine where tour participants did on-site research and obtained more than 100 copies of documents. (General Audience). Color. (29 min)

To Bear Witness
Filmed at the 1985 Liberators' Conference in Washington, DC., it presents an extraordinary series of interviews with the survivors and liberators of the Nazi concentration camps. These remarkable men and women speak to the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. It has a profound effect on both student and adult audiences. (Adult). Color. (41 min.)

Tomorrow Came Much Later
A group of high school students from Ohio joins Holocaust survivor Bertha Lautman in a poignant and ultimately uplifting journey to the camps where the Nazis had interned her, and also to Israel, where Lautman felt she had been reborn following her liberation from the camps. They also visit famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in Vienna. The teens then discuss their reactions to the trip. Middle grades and up. (JHS/MS+). Color & B/W. (58 min.)

Voices Of Survival
Alan Handel's riveting documentary of the Holocaust features personal testimony by seven European survivors, a searing recollection of the unfolding of Hitler's "final solution to the Jewish problem." Archival film footage and photographs add historical perspective to the survivors' articulate and powerful portrayals of the destruction of their families, neighborhoods and way of life. (JHS/MS+). Color. (55 min.)

We Were Marked With A Big A
Three gay Holocaust survivors - Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim, Kurt von Ruffin, and Paul Gerdhard Vogel - tell their stories. 1991. 44 mins. English subtitles. From USHMM. (Non-Circulating)

We Were There: Jewish Liberators Of The Nazi Concentration Camps.
Kneeling with the sufferers, Jewish GI's prayed in Hebrew and rendered what solace they could.In this intimate memoir, their stories take on added poignancy with footage made inside and around the camps. Ending with the plea "zachor" (remember and tell others), the program includes a brief history of Nazism and scenes of the Nuremberg trials. (Adult). color and B & W (40 min.)

Weapons Of The Spirit (Classroom Version)
Directed, written, and narrated by Pierre Sauvage. A moving remembrance of the courage of the residents of the French village of Le Chambon, ordinary people whose virtually unparalleled efforts saved 5,000 Jewish lives from Nazi persecution. Newsreel footage, interviews with the rescuers and those they saved, and the personal reflections of Pierre Sauvage - who was born in the village while his parents were sheltered by area farmers - depict the horror of life for French Jews, and the "conspiracy of goodness" that occurred in the midst of terror and death. (JHS/MS+). Color. (35 min)

Weapons of the Spirit (Classroom Version)
During World War II in and around one village in Nazi-occupied France 5000 Jews were sheltered by 5000 Christians. Pierre Sauvage, born and protected in Le chambon-sur-Lignon, returns to tell the story. Adapted from the 90-minute feature, this version speaks to the goodness and righteousness in humanity in the face of unimaginable evil. (25 minutes). Middle and High School.

Who Walks Here Now? A Remembrance of the Holocaust and Beyond
Author, lecturer, and Holocaust survivor Marga Randall has dedicated her life to educating others about the holocaust. This video captures the horror and healing as we follow a group of young people from the U.S. and Germany, Jews and Christians alike, as they visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. Through stark images of the past and present, we're reminded of this tragedy and that we must never allow it to happen again. 23 minutes

Witness: Voices From The Holocaust
Testimonies and rare archival footage reveal the Nazi era through the memories of those who were there. Hitler Youth, Jesuit priest, resistance fighters, death camp survivors, American POWs, and Liberators. (90 min).

You Are Free
Academy Award nomination Best Documentary Short. Focuses on the liberation of the concentration camps at the end of World War II, as told from the point of view of four liberators from different branches of the service. Includes archival footage. (JHS/MS+). Color & B/W. (20 min.)