Film Series
The aim of the film series is to provide a forum for discussion by Member States and civil society partners, and to raise awareness of the Holocaust and the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.
"As Seen through These Eyes"
In observance of the anniversary of the Kristallnacht Pogrom of 9 November 1938, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme organized the screening of the documentary film, "As Seen through These Eyes", on Monday 9 November 2009 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber (UNHQ). A conversation with the film’s Director, Producer, Writer, Hilary Helstein, on learning about the Holocaust through art followed the screening.
Ms. Helstein travelled the world over the past decade to compile interviews with artists who have survived the Holocaust. Each conversation brings with it the realization that every painting or sketch on a torn scrap of paper is its own Holocaust diary. Their words and their images of the survivors are profoundly moving, communicating horror and hope artistically.
Narrated by Maya Angelou and produced in association with Sundance Channel, the film aims to combat prejudice, bigotry and intolerance.
On this occasion, the Department of Public Information has launched "The Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Papers Journal".
The publication, which includes a foreword by Under-Secretary-General Kiyo Akasaka and nine papers drafted by experts on the Holocaust and prevention of genocide, provides a forum for individual scholars representing a variety of cultures and perspectives, to raise issues for debate and further study.
Press Release: United Nations to Screen Film on Holocaust Art on 9 November (2 November 2009)
“Watermarks”
The Department of Pubic Information held a screening of the documentary "Watermarks", on Thursday 29 January 2009 in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at United Nations Headquarters.
Watermarks tells the story of the champion women swimmers of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah, which was located in Vienna, Austria. In defiance of Hitler, the women courageously refused to take part in the Berlin Olympics in 1936. After the Anschluss, the political unification of Nazi Germany and Austria in 1938, the Nazis shut down the club, but the swimmers managed to flee the country before the war broke out.
Sixty-five years later, director Yaron Zilberman meets the members of the women’s swim team in their homes around the world, and arranges for them to have a reunion in their old swimming pool in Vienna, a journey that evokes memories of youth, femininity and strengthens lifelong bonds.
Director Yaron Zilberman made a brief statement to introduce the film.
Press release: United Nations to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January - Events include Memorial Ceremony, exhibits, film screening (26 January 2009)
The screening of Watermarks is courtesy of Kino International, Cinephil, Opening Night Productions, HBO and Arte.
“My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner”
70th Anniversary Observance of Kristallnacht
This 2007 documentary film narrates the story of former court official Friedrich Kellner, a political activist in the Third Reich who defied the Nazis by campaigning against them and later secretly documenting their atrocities in his diary, at the risk of his life. As a consequence, he was brought before a tribunal and threatened with imprisonment in a concentration camp. Today, his grandson Prof. Robert Scott Kellner, who discovered and translated the ten volume diaries, uses them to raise awareness on the dangers of totalitarian ideology. The documentary was also screened in the 2008 Toronto Film Festival.
Hosted by Kiyo Akasaka, UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information
Opening remarks by His Excellency Mr. Thomas Matussek, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations
Press release: UNDPI will hold panel discussion and film screening on 10 November to mark 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht (31 October 2008)
UN News Article: UN Observes anniversary of Kristallnacht pogros against Jews (10 November 2008)
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Writer and Director: Mark Jonathan HarrisProducer: Deborah Oppenheimer
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights reserved.
The Department of Pubic Information held a screening of the documentary "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport", on Thursday, 31 January 2008 in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at United Nations Headquarters. The event was hosted by Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and opening remarks were made by Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations, Her Excellency Karen Pierce.
The film’s producer Ms. Deborah Oppenheimer and David G. Marwell, Ph.D., Director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, took part in a discussion after the film.
The film describes how for nine months prior to the outbreak of World War II, in an unprecedented act of mercy, Great Britain conducted an extraordinary rescue mission known as the Kindertransport. Ten thousand endangered children were transported from their homes in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland and placed into foster homes and hostels, expecting eventually to be reunited with their parents. The majority of the children never saw their families again.
Told in the words of the child survivors, rescuers, parents and foster parents and illustrated with rare archival footage and photographs, Into the Arms of Strangers recounts the remarkable story of this rescue operation and its dramatic impact on the lives of the children who were saved.
Steal a Pencil For Me
The United Nations Department of Public Information and the Anne Frank Center USA jointly screened Steal a Pencil for Me, presented by Red Envelope Entertainment, in connection with the Holocaust and the United Nations outreach programme. The screening took place at 6 p.m. on Monday, 16 April, at United Nations Headquarters in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium. Raymond Sommereyns, Director of the Outreach Division, Department of Public Information, made opening remarks, followed by Yvonne Simons, Executive Director, Anne Frank Center USA and Michèle Ohayon, filmmaker.
Press Release: UNDPI and Anne Frank Center USA to screen "Steal a Pencil For Me" on 16 April as part of the Holocaust Outreach Programme (11 April 2007)
Nazvy svoie im'ia (Spell Your Name)
In Russian, with English subtitles. Screened on 1 February 2007 at the Dag
Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, United Nations Headquarters.
Directed by Sergey Bukovsky and presented by Steven Spielberg, Victor Pinchuk and the Shoah Foundation for Visual History and Education at the University of Southern California, the movie follows a journey of discovery by Ukrainian students who absorb the testimony of local people who escaped brutal execution and those who rescued friends and neighbors during the Holocaust. A collection of men and women share the details of their experiences, and we are afforded a glimpse of modern day Ukraine: the ethnic stereotypes that continue to exist and the manner in which Post-Soviet society is dealing with the question of how to memorialize the sites where tens of thousands of Jewish families and others were executed and thrown into mass graves.
Remarks by Mr. Viktor Kryzhanivskyi,
Chargé d´Affaires, a.i. of Ukraine to the United Nations, at the screening of
"Spell Your Name"
University of Southern California, Shoah Foundation for Visual History and Education
Volevo solo vivere (I Only Wanted To Live)
In Italian, with English subtitles. Screened on 31 January 2007 at the Dag
Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, United Nations Headquarters.
Directed by Mimmo Calopresti
and produced by the Shoah Foundation for Visual History and Education at the University of
Southern California, the movie narrates the stories of nine Italian citizens who survive
deportation and internment in the Auschwitz death camps. Nine stories through which we
follow the most significant events of this harrowing experience: the enactment of the racial
laws in Italy, the futile escape attempts, the deportation, the separation from other family
members, the miraculous survival in Auschwitz, and liberation with the arrival of the allied
soldiers.
University of Southern California, Shoah Foundation for Visual History and Education
The Pianist
The United Nations Department of Public Information and the New York Tolerance Center jointly screened on 19 July 2006 The Pianist, the second movie in the film series launched in connection with the Holocaust and the United Nations outreach programme. The screening took place at 6 p.m. in the Tolerance Center at 226 East 42nd Street.
Directed by the famous filmmaker Roman Polanski, the movie is based on the autobiography of Wladyslav Szpilman, a Polish Jew and a celebrated pianist and composer who, during the Nazi occupation, evaded deportation and remained in the ravaged Warsaw Ghetto. There, he fought to stay alive, even when separated from his loved ones, and confronted his fears with the aid from the unlikeliest source -- a Nazi officer who helped him hide during the final days of the war. The Pianist won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Oscars for directing, acting (Adrien Brody) and adapted screenplay in the year 2002.
Press Release: UNDPI and New York Tolerance Center to screen "The Pianist" (12 July 2006)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
The United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) and the New York Tolerance Center jointly launched a film series on 25 April 2006 (Yom Hashoah) in connection with the Holocaust and the United Nations outreach programme. Raymond Sommereyns, Director of the Outreach Division, DPI, and Mark Weitzman, Director of the New York Tolerance Center, made opening remarks.
The first screening was scheduled for 25 April at 6 p.m. in the Tolerance Center ( 226 East 42nd Street, New York) and featured the film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. The film is about the last six days in the life of Sophie Scholl who is caught by the Gestapo as a member of the German Nazi-resistance group, the White Rose, and is executed for “high treason” by the Nazis. The film won the prestigious Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film festival in 2005. As co-sponsor of this screening, Hans-Juergen Heimsoeth, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany based in New York, also made a brief statement.
Press Release: UNDPI and New York Tolerance Center to jointly host film series on Holocaust, prevention of genocide (19 May 2006)
Fateless
The Holocaust and the United Nations and the United Nations Staff Recreation Council’s Film Society jointly hosted the screening of the movie Fateless on 24 Janaury 2006 in United Nations Headquarters in New York. Catherine Claxton, President of the United Nations Film Society, and Raymond Sommereyns, Director of the Outreach Division, introduced the film. The movie is based on the novel with the same name by Nobel Literature Laureate Imre Kertesz which follows a 14-year Jewish boy from Budapest to the Buchenwald concentration camp
Press release: United Nations to observe the first Universal Commemoration in Memory of the Holocaust victims (20 January 2006)