SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 ISSUE
Holocaust Film Series Begins Sunday
The Holocaust Film Series schedule is as follows:
Triumph of the Will
September 20
“Propaganda made the Third Reich,” a top Nazi once exalted. This Nazi film documents the 1934 Nazi Party Rally in Nurnberg. Director Leni Riefenstahl designed the film to convince Germany and the world that the new Third Reich was invincible, and it is generally recognized as one of the most powerful propaganda films ever made. The 1935 film runs 110 minutes.
Conspiracy
October 11
This film recreates the infamous meeting on January 20, 1942, at which top Nazis planned the implementation of the Holocaust. Chaired by SS General Reinhard Heydrich and attended by Adolf Eichmann and 14 other top Third Reich leaders, this two-hour meeting worked out plans for murdering all the Jews of Europe. This historical dramatization is based on the sole surviving transcript of the meeting. The movie, made in 2001, runs 115 minutes.
The Pianist
October 25
In this Academy Award-winning film, Director Roman Polanski tells the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded Nazi death camps and survived by hiding in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. The 2002 film runs 150 minutes.
Schindler’s List
November 1
This Academy Award-winning film by Stephen Spielberg traces the true story of Oscar Schindler, who was a member of the Nazi party, a war profiteer and a womanizer who saved more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. The 1993 film is 185 minutes long.
Triumph of the Spirit
November 8
Based on a true story, this film follows the nightmare of a Jewish boxer from Greece who literally fights for his life to entertain SS officers in Auschwitz, knowing that each victory condemns his opponents to the gas chambers. Oscar nominee William Defoe presents an extraordinary story of life and death in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. This is the only commercial film ever filmed on location in Auschwitz. Made in 1989, the film runs 120 minutes.
Everything is Illuminated
November 15
A young Jewish American flies to Ukraine in search of his grandfather’s past. Armed only with a photograph of his grandfather’s village, he hires the Odessa Heritage Tours, made up of an old man and his English-speaking grandson, to journey into the heart of Ukraine in order to come to terms with his past. The 2005 film runs 106 minutes.
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