Holocaust film series continues

Starting Sept. 18, Appalachian State University’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies presents a series of feature films and documentaries on the Nazi Holocaust.

Held in Plemmons Student Union on campus, presentations are Sundays at 2 p.m. in the Greenbriar Cinema. Each film will be introduced briefly by one of the center’s co-directors, who will be available to answer questions.

All films are free and open to the public.

‘Triumph of the Will’
Sept. 18

This piece of Nazi propaganda covers the events of the sixth Nuremberg Party Congress. The original intention was to document the early days of the regime, so future generations could look back and see how the Third Reich began. In reality, “Triumph of the Will” shows historians how the Nazi state drew in the masses through propaganda. (1934) 110 minutes.

‘Conspiracy‘
Sept. 25

This film recreates the infamous meeting on Jan. 20, 1942, at which top Nazis planned the implementation of the Holocaust. Chaired by SS Gen. Reinhard Heydrich and attended by Adolf Eichmann and 14 other Third Reich members, this two-hour meeting decided how the Jews of Europe would be murdered. The documentary is based on the Wannsee Protocol, the sole surviving transcript of this meeting. (2001) 115 minutes.

‘The Pianist’
Oct. 2

This film tells the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout WWII by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. (2002) 150 minutes.

‘Schindler’s List’
Oct. 9

This Academy Award winning picture presents the indelible true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party, womanizer and war profiteer who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. (1993) 185 minutes

‘Defiance’
Oct. 23

Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarusian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants. (2008) 137 minutes

‘The Murderers Are Among Us’

Oct. 30

Critically ranked in Germany’s top 10 post-1945 films, “The Murderers Are Among Us” offers a penetrating examination of German society’s earliest attempts to cope with the shame and guilt for Nazism and the Holocaust. Filmed in the ruins of Berlin in 1946, this film stars the young Hildegard Knef as concentration camp survivor Susanne Wallner and Ernst Borchart as Dr. Hans Mertens, a medical doctor who struggles to overcome his sense of guilt at silently witnessing a Nazi atrocity that included the murder of women and children. (1946) In German with English subtitles. 81 minutes

‘Judgment at Nuremberg’
Nov. 6

Director Stanley Kramer’s 1961 film examines one war-crimes trial arising out of World War II. Spencer Tracy plays the American judge selected to head the tribunal that will try the suspected war criminals. Regarded as a classic, this stark rendering of one of the most pivotal events in the 20th century features a stellar cast, including Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich, a young William Shatner, and Maximillian Schell, who won an Oscar for his role. (1961) 186 minutes.

‘Everything is Illuminated’

Nov. 13

A young Jewish American flies to Ukraine in search of his grandfather’s past. Armed with only 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 to come to terms with his past. (2005) 106 minutes.

The film series is sponsored by ASU’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Joseph & Frieda Ross Foundation.

For more information, visit http://www.holcocaust.appstate.edu.