Holocaust Story Project

Bringing History to Life

Film, Literature, and Theater

  • Jewish Book Council – non-profit organization that is dedicated to the promotion of Jewish books in English and serving as a national resource for information about the American Jewish literary scene.
  • Re-Collection – non-profit organization founded to collect, preserve, and share memories and diaries of Holocaust survivors that relocated to Canada
  • “Forget Us Not” documentary by Heather E. Connell – a moving, in-depth look at the persecution and subsequent death of 5 million non jewish victims of the WWII Holocaust and its survivors
  • HOST A SCREENING OF NO ASYLUM : THE UNTOLD CHAPTER OF ANNE FRANK’S STORY

No Asylum is a new 72 minute documentary that follows Otto Frank’s recently discovered letters desperately seeking asylum for his family. It’s a compelling compilation of archival footage, photography, new interviews and recent footage of surviving members of the Frank family and other Holocaust survivors. The film is also a timely call to action to aid in the current refugee crisis. This film serves as a warning of what happens when discriminatory or simply insufficient replies are delivered in response to those desperately seeking asylum.

“If the world had not turned it’s back on Anne Frank, “Anne Frank could be a 87-year-old woman living in Boston today, a writer,” according to Richard Brietman, Ph.D.

  • IWitness – educational website developed by the USC Shoah Foundation to provide digital resources to facilitate active learning about the Holocaust
Short Film Resources
  • “Why We Remember the Holocaust“  Approx 8 minutes.  (Available online and in a free kit provided by the USHMM for “Days of Remembrance“.)  Provides a powerful, introduction to study of the Holocaust (and other genocides), with documentary film footage as well as testimony and statements by survivors and the President of the United States about why it’s important for everyone to learn about the Holocaust and to act on it’s “lessons” to ensure “never again” to anyone.
  • Ambulance (Polish, with music but no narration).  15 minutes.  Powerful film that aims to have viewers consider the plight of those in the Warsaw Ghetto, especially the children, the role of Janusz Korzac and his orphans, and the role of the Nazi perpetrators.
  • Website of the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation(www.jewishpartisans.org) provides access to excellent short films.  The length of these films ranges from 3  to 21 minutes.  These films highlight stories that engage students in meaningful learning about important topics using documentary film footage and interviews with survivors.
  • Echoes and Reflections curriculum materials offer many short video clips for teaching specific important aspects of the Holocaust. Students are engaged meaningfully in learning from survivor testimonies, documents, and more.
  • IWitness (USC-Shoah Foundation) provides very important access to approximately 1,800 filmed testimonies of survivors. These can be used as part of commemoration or awareness program or in the classroom.  IWitness is organized so that teachers and students can focus on teaching/learning about specific aspects of the Holocaust using footage from the Shoah Foundation.
  • The Courage to Care. 30 Minutes.  Important stories of Rescuers that focus on the need for rescuers from both the survivor’s own testimonies about the Holocaust, and from the rescuers themselves who were “ordinary people” who saved lives.  Available from: Facing History, Vimeo, ADL.
  • The Power of Good:  Nicholas Winton.  1 hour and 8 minutes. From this story of Nicholas Winton, students learn of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis (from documentary footage), of the plight of the Jews, of the specific Kindertransport organized by Winton, and of the lives he saved.
  • A Moment in Time:  The Extraordinary Story of Ruth Gruber   1 hour and 13 minutes.  An excellent documentary film that places the Holocaust in the context of other events of the 20th century.    Highlights include challenges for women in the U.S. and the world, need for rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, role of the U. S. State Department during the Holocaust and in the story of the Exodus and the establishment of the State of Israel.  My students were very inspired by this film.  Ruth Gruber died this week at the age of 105.
  • America and the Holocaust:  Deceit and Indifference.  1 hour and 30 minutes.  Excellent if you have time to screen the film and also have discussion. Very relevant to the plight of refugees seeking refuge before and during the Holocaust as well as to refugees today.
  • Review of Tsvi Bisk of Israel’s Three Books: Futurizing the Jews, The Optimistic Jew, and Suicide of the Jews by Art Shostak
Art Shostak, a great futurist and a TechCast Expert, gives us a cogent overview of this ambitious trilogy by another great futurist and TechCast Expert, Tsvi Bisk of Israel. The three works of Bisk — Futurizing the Jews, The Optimistic Jew, and now Suicide of the Jews — are of special interest because they form a set of three alternative scenarios. This review provides an authoritative analysis of prospects for Israel, and a great example off how to do good foresight.

As far back as 2003 with the publication of Futurizing the Jews futurist co-author Tsvi Bisk used the tools of forecasting to suggest where the Jewish people in general, and Israel in particular, should be going. He warned against defensiveness, a fetish of past sufferings, ideological wishful thinking, and willful isolationism. He urged instead emphasizing a hopeful future and boldly declared “no other people on earth is better prepared by virtue of education, temperament, and proven history to face the challenges of the space age.” (p.xv)

Especially brow-raising was Tsvi’s contention that the new information revolution, then still in its infancy, could yet “transform Jewishness from the historic identity of a particular people into a future-oriented identity that resonates with modern young individuals searching for communal identity without having to sacrifice their individual growth and aspirations. (Pp. 215-6).

Four years later Tsvi authored a monograph aptly entitled The Optimistic Jew: A Positive Vision for the Jewish People in the 21st Century. Among other things he urged modernization of Zionist ideology; more emphasis by the Diaspora on providing human skills, rather than money, to Israel; recognition that the settlements are dysfunctional to Jewish interests; an unconditional demand for reciprocity in Arab-Jewish relations; diplomatic rejection of the missionary assault of some Christians; and rejection of multiculturalism in favor of cultural pluralism; etc.

Tsvi closed his book with forecasts of changes he hoped would have been achieved by 2020, e.g., an indirect global strategy of destroying oil as the major international commodity, thereby winning the War on Terror and international Jihadism. He also hoped Israel would have achieved parity with the Diaspora in every aspect of Israeli life, the better to have the two parties relate as equal partners. As well, he envisioned EU and American development aid significantly alleviating the predicament of the Palestinian people, thereby enabling a move toward a process of practical peacemaking. Given the rise of anti-Semitism, the stagnation of the Middle East peace process, and the persistent promise by Islamic extremists another “holocaust,” Tsvi’s framework was applauded by many for its confidence in the future of the Jewish people.

In 2015 Tsvi Bisk brought out a third related book, this one starkly titled – The Suicide of the Jews: A Cautionary Tale. Darker in tone and message from the previous two, it urgently warns that “If Israel will not be a light unto the nations it will not be a light unto the Jews, and thus will not be able to mobilize the energy and passion needed to survive.” As a result of misguided policies that cling to the past and have no investment in the democratic rule of law (theocratic power, settlement authorization, and land idolatry) Israel may yet self-destruct and become a third world state.

Working in the prophetic tradition of speaking truth to power, Tsvi warns that power is being steadily gained by Israelis with little appreciation for democracy, the Mizrahim (Jews from Arab countries), the ultra-orthodox, and resolute Greater Israel settlers. He extrapolates out to 2048, by which time Arabs and Orthodox extremists are the only ones left, the best and the brightest having gone elsewhere by 2032: “By 2048, the country known as Israel has ceased to exist, 100 years after its establishment.” (p.299).

Highly regarded among futurists Tsvi Bisk does not presume to “tell the future,” but instead ventures extrapolations from current events that merit pondering by all who appreciate how high are the stakes for Jewry (a people), Israel (a nation), Judaism (a religion), and thereby, for all of humanity. Consistent with Tsvi’s pessimism, TechCast’s 130 experts put the probability of Palestinian-Israeli peace at a low 15 %, and think it even far less likely Israel will soon be conquered by force (2% probability).

Tsvi would have us recognize as well the threat from within, the challenges of redirecting cultural, ethical, and political drifts. With crisp, engaging, and always informative writing, he promotes a nuanced appreciation of the core challenge Israelis confront: Either become a light unto the nations, or decline as a lost cause.

All three books are available at Amazon.