EVENTS:

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: JUDY BATALION

Judy Batalion’s The Light of Days: The Untold Stories of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos has been optioned by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners. It was published in April 2021 by William Morrow/HarperCollins on the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

Judy was born in Montreal, studied at Harvard, and worked as a curator and comedian London before settling in New York City. Her essays about parenting, religion and health have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Forward, Tablet. Her first book was optioned by Warner Brothers, for whom Judy is currently developing the TV series “CLUTTERED.”

JUNE 14 @ 7 PM

SCREENING AND Q and A

with director Roberta Grossman

WHO WILL WRITE OUR HISTORY? (2018)

In November 1940, days after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a secret band of journalists, scholars and community leaders decided to fight back. Led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum and known by the code name Oyneg Shabes, this clandestine group of journalists, scholars, and community leaders in the Warsaw Ghetto vowed to defeat Nazi lies and propaganda not with guns or fists, but with pen and paper.Now, for the first time, their story is told in the documentary featuring the voices of three-time Academy Award® nominee Joan Allen and Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody. Written, produced, and directed by Roberta Grossman and executive produced by Nancy Spielberg, WHO WILL WRITE OUR HISTORY mixes the writings of the Oyneg Shabes archive with new interviews, rarely seen footage and stunning dramatizations to transport us inside the Ghetto and the lives of these courageous resistance fighters. They defied their murderous enemy with the ultimate weapon – the truth – and risked everything so that their archive would survive the war, even if they did not.

The New York Times - Critic's Pick

"Who Will Write Our History recounts a bold story of Nazi resistance. And inside that one story are countless others, each immensely important.

Using newsreels, voice-overs and re-enactments, Roberta Grossman, the documentary’s director, paints a comprehensive portrait of the times and of the risks taken by Ringelblum and his group. The staged scenes are well acted, while readings from diaries and letters are heartbreaking."

Los Angeles Times

"Who Will Write Our History is carefully made, with the production design team working with scholars for six months prior to filming to ensure accuracy. Though its form is complex, including archival scenes that include concentration camp-type footage, the film’s emotional through line is clear and direct."

National Public Radio

"Who Will Write Our History includes clips from German propaganda films … Voiceover commentators identify these snippets not merely as deceptive, but also as precisely the sort of Nazi defamation the Oyneg Shabes archive was designed to counter. In a sense, Grossman is attempting to right history by repurposing German-shot footage in a movie about the bravery and nobility of Polish Jews."

FOR SCREENING AND PURCHASE OPTIONS: https//:gooddocs.net/who-will-write-our-history

LINDA STEIN

Holocaust Heroines:

F I E R C E F E M A L E S

U N ION G A L L E R Y W A G NE R C O L L E G E

H OURS:

We welcome you to visit our exhibit of original tapestries by artist Linda Stein, dedicated to heroines of the Holocaust

Heroic Tapestries represent different aspects of bravery during the time of the Holocaust: Jew and non-Jew, child and adult, World War II military fighter and ghetto/concentration camp smuggler, record keeper and saboteur. Together they represent the many types of female heroism, with war battle gear and without, during the years of the Holocaust

The Holocaust Heroes project demonstrates that while most people are bystanders under conditions of terror, there are always a few who defy a malevolent authority and do what they feel is the right thing. If heroes existed during the Holocaust, then certainly we can increase the propensity for individuals to become more empathetic and compassionate under normal conditions.

This project is guided by an advisory group of art experts, Holocaust scholars, and individuals who are the offspring of Holocaust-impacted families, including political scientist Jerome Chanes, psychologist Eva Fogelman, healthcare expert Susanna Ginsburg, art educator Karen Keifer-Boyd, art historian and curator Gail Levin, museum director Jeanie Rosensaft, and Holocaust and human rights law professor Menachem Rosensaft. The editor of our exhibition catalog is Amy Stone and the producer of our short video and future documentary is Sarah Connors.

Wagner Info 12:15:20.pdf

Screening and Director Talk

Daring to Resist: Three Women Face the Holocaust

A film by Martha Goell Lubell and Barbara Attie.

Why would a young person choose resistance rather than submission during Hitler's reign of terror while her world was collapsing around her? In this gripping documentary, three Jewish women answer this question by recalling their lives as teenagers in occupied Holland, Hungary and Poland, when they refused to remain passive as the Nazis rounded up local Jewish populations. Defying her family's wishes, each girl found an unexpected way of fighting back--as a ballet dancer shuttling Jews to safe houses and distributing resistance newspapers; as a photographer and partisan waging guerrilla war against the Germans; and as a leader in an underground Zionist group smuggling Jews across the border. Enriched by home movies, archival footage, and previously unpublished photographs, the women's varied and vibrant stories provide a unique look at Jewish resistance to Nazism, a subject all too often consigned to history's footnotes.