KCC Recognizes Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah, a day set aside to remember the Holocaust, calls upon us to reflect on the past and make a pledge to prevent the spread of anti-Semitism, racism, and hatred. 

Given the Covid-19 circumstances, The Kingsborough- Manhattan Beach Holocaust Memorial & Research Center has cancelled our program scheduled for this semester. However, we invite you to commemorate the day by taking some time to look at these online resources and virtual events offered by other organizations.

We will also be developing more materials in the coming weeks with our campus community. 

Resources and Virtual Events for Yom HaShoah*

*Please note this list in not exhaustive.

Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/2020/index.asp

Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Day 2020

Broadcast of Holocaust Remembrance Day Opening Ceremony 2020

April 20, 2020

1pm (US EST) with subtitles in English

Recuse by Jews. “One for All” (Online art exhibition)

Worldwide Virtual Name Reading

• Provides information about the Holocaust, reasearch projects, resources for educations, an e-newsletter, digital collections, and more.

 

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum – What You Do Matters: 2020 National Tribute Gathering https://www.ushmm.org/online-calendar/event/venadortribdin0420

April 21, 2020 at 6pm. 

Online Virtual Event – “Please join members of the Museum community from across the contry who are committed to its mission of teaching the history and lessons of the Holocaust. As our nation and the world face unprecedented challenges, these lessons can help us gain perspective during these difficult times.”

You can visit https://www.ushmm.org/remember for testimonies from survivors, resources for survivors and victims, and more.

 

A special Yom HaShoah Presentation based on the work of Witness Theater

Ordinary Blessings: A Tribute Video

Monday April 20, 2020, 7:00p.m.

To watch the tribute video: visit Selfhelp’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/SelfhelpCommunityServices)

Conceived and created by the students and staff all from their own homes, this tribute video shares the stories of survival, celebrates the extraordinary survivors, and highlights the life-changing lessons they have imparted to the students.

While the current health crisis forced us to suspend our Witness Theater performances, this group of students was determined to share the survivors’ stories and the beautiful relationships they have built.

 

Annual Gathering of Remembrance Museum of Jewish Heritage (New York)

https://mjhnyc.org/events/new-yorks-annual-gathering-of-remembrance/

Sunday April 19 at 2pm

Join the Museum of Jewish Heritage online where we will come together as a community to say: we will never forget. This year’s commemoration for Yom HaShoah / Holocaust Remembrance Day will be a virtual event. As we do every year, we will honor the memory of those who perished at the hands of evil, and pay tribute to those who survived and have made a better world for us all. Speakers include Holocaust survivors and their family members, Ambassador Dani Dayan – Consul General of Israel in New York, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Michael Burstyn, Steven Skybell, Jessica Shaw, and many others. 

Movies about the Holocaust

Available on Netflix and Amazon

• • Schindler’s List (1993)
    • The film focuses on wealthy businessman Oskar Schindler, who spends his fortune and risks his life to save the lives of 1100 Jewish men and women in German-occupied Poland. Winner of seven Oscars, “Schindler’s List” tells an important story that reminds us that there are still good people in the world who believe in humanity. 
  • Defiance (2008)
    • Tells the true-life story of the Bielski partisans, a group led by Belarusian Jewish brothers, who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War. 
  • Denial (2016)
    • Gripping courtroom drama based on the real-life trial in which American academic Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) was sued by British author David Irving (Timothy Spall) after she described him as a ‘Holocaust denier’. During the trial, Irving maintained no Jews were murdered by gassing at Auschwitz. It was a tension-filled case watched by the world’s media that ultimately vindicated Lipstadt and left Irving’s reputation in tatters as a falsifier of history. 

Available on Netflix 

• • Nazi Concentration Camps (1945)
    • “Nazi Concentration Camps” is the official documentary report compiled from over 80,000 feet of film shot by Allied military photographers in the German concentration camps immediately after liberation. The footage was taken in order to provide proof of the horrors the liberators witnessed. Besides that, some attention is also placed on the humanitarian work done in the camps by the rescuers.
  • Playing for Time (1980)
    • In what seems like one of the most defining films of the ’80s, Playing For Time is the story of a French-Jewish singer and pianist Fania is being sent to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the second world war by the Nazi forces. Fania, given herself being a musician, is not subject to the atrocities as are others but is enlisted in an orchestra called the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. Fina, using her influence among the other singers and in order to help her friend out, enlists Marianne in the singing group as well. Though the women of the orchestra are subject to lesser torture, fed well and are looked after, they still suffer physical and mental abuse regardless. Fania is seemingly stuck between a rock and a hard place.
  • Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution (2005)
    • Powerful six-part documentary series from the BBC, which presents an in-depth look at the story of Auschwitz and features interviews with former inmates, guards and re-enactments of historic events. From conception to reality, mass murder, experimentation and ultimately liberation and revenge, the series covers all aspects of this notorious Nazi camp, where more than one million Jews were sent to their deaths.
  • The Boy in Striped Pajamas (2008)
    • The movie begins with a young German boy Bruno whose family is on the move to German-occupied Poland — his father Ralf is a commanding officer in the local concentration camp, while he lives with his sister Gretel and mother Elsa. Bruno is of an adventurous nature and since there’s no one to play with, he befriends Shmuel, another boy of his age from across an electrified fence, thus indicating that Shmuel is actually a prisoner at the camp his father looks after. Bruno would steal time away to meet Shmuel, play with him and is often intrigued by Shmuel’s dress – striped pajamas. Shmuel is disturbed by the fact that his father’s been missing for a few days, thus indicating to the audiences that he might have been gassed. Bruno decides to cross over and search for Shmuel’s father.  Bruno crosses over wearing the clothes provided by Shmuel, but soon finds himself lined up for gassing.
  • Masterpiece Classic: The Diary of Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2010)
    • A show based on the book The Diary of Anne Frank. She was a young girl in hiding during the Holocaust. She kept a diary during her time in hiding that was eventually released as a book. 
  • Defying the Nazis: The Sharp’s War (2013)
    • The Nazis were a notorious and ruthless bunch of people, and to defy them guarantees nothing but death. But did it stop certain unsung heroes from saving the lives of those in peril? Certainly not. Empathy and a will to do something can take one a long way, and this is exactly what we learn from the story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp. The American couple defied all odds, left their children to the care of their parish, and set out to save Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe. The couple spent two years saving hundreds of lives while constantly staring at death at every corner. It is their lives of undaunting courage and sacrifice that become the subject of this magnificent documentary by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky.
  • Fanny’s Journey (2016)
    • Believe it or not, most of the Holocaust-related films have either been inspired by real-life stories or are based on them. ‘Fanny’s Journey’ is yet another example of an incredibly inspiring Fanny, a 13-year-old girl who is taken by her mother along with younger sisters Erika and Georgette to spend the wartime in a peaceful, neutral Italian boarding school. Given their Jewish descent, it was even more imperative that they got out of the danger zone. But as German raids begin, the Jewish schoolchildren are forced to flee, including Fanny and her sisters. Fanny has to get to the Swiss border before things could get worse, along with the baggage of 10 children who are younger than her. 
  • Riphagen – The Untouchable (2016)
    • As opposed to the patriot Walraven Van Hall who stood for Dutch people by funding the Dutch resistance for all we know, Riphagen literally ripped the country off for his own good. He was a traitor who treacherously stole the riches, handed Jews over to the Nazis, systematically hunted and brought down the resistance and subdued any kind of justice. ‘Riphagen – The Untouchable’ is essentially an account of the spiteful activities undertaken by Riphagen and their consequences.
  • Red Trees (2017)
    • Award-winning director Marina Willer’s father was among 12 Jewish families to survive the Nazi occupation of Prague during the Second World War. In Red Trees, she traces the perilous journey taken by the family, as told through the voice of her father, Alfred (narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith), from war-torn Eastern Europe to the solace of South America. 
  • The Photographer of Mauthausen (2018)
    • The Photographer of Mauthausen, also known as El fotógrafo de Mauthausen, is a 2018 Spanish biography drama historical film. Based on real events, the film revolves around Francesc Boix is a Spaniard inmate in the Nazi concentration camp of Mauthausen in Austria who tries to save the evidences of the horrors committed inside its walls.
  • Hitler’s Steel Beast (2016)
    • A defining documentary about Hitler’s specially-built train that could withstand attacks from bombs, bullets, and aerial warfare, ‘Hitler’s Steel Beast’ might not be a film that “highlights” the holocaust but definitely touches upon it at many points. The movie begins with how Hitler’s train was a bunker, his headquarter and refuge on wheels, an Air Force One of sorts, only not airborne. It is said that Hitler took many decisive meetings onboard his Steel Beast, made history and was confined in it during the final days of the war. Dispelling rumors and telling us about the “lost treasure” of the second world war, very few records remain of Hitler’s Steel Beast to this day. Set during the days of the Holocaust until the death of Hitler, perhaps this was the most famous train of the time.
  • Hitler’s Olympics (2016)
    • The 1936 Olympic Games is well-regarded as the most controversial edition of the game in its modern avatar. Hosted in the city of Berlin by Nazi Germany, the Games opened up the world to the world of Hitler for the first time. Interestingly, Hitler at first was not that interested in hosting the Games because he did not care about international goodwill to any degree. He later agreed after his advisors told him this could be a great opportunity to spread Nazi propaganda. The US had earlier said that they would withdraw their participation if Jewish athletes were harmed in any way. The Games were for the first and only time during Hitler’s rule that the Nazis did not prosecute the Jews living in the country. This is a very important documentary about the most politically tense Olympic Games of all time.

Available on Amazon

• • The Pianist (2002)
    • This powerful biographical drama directed by Roman Polanski is based on the Holocaust memoir of Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman (played by Adrien Brody). 

• • Sarah’s Key (2011)
    • An American journalist discovers a mysterious family story to the French Vel’d’Hiv Roundup in 1942. Sixty years later, the truth remains unknown.
  • In Darkness (2012)
    • Based on the true story of a Polish sewer worker who helps a group of Jews escape Nazi persecution.
  • Son of Saul (2015)
    • Winner of the Academy Awards for best foreign language film, director László Nemes’ drama revolves around Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig), an inmate chosen to work in the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz. Aside from the unspeakable horror he witnesses, he sees a boy among the bodies who might be his son, and feels he must find a rabbi to give the child a proper Jewish burial.