Storytelling and Filmmaking to Remember Holocaust Survivors

In this project Jewish middle/high school students explore Jewish life in Europe, the Holocaust, and post-war immigrant life in America through the experiences of local Holocaust survivors from Central or Eastern Europe.  The students take primary source material from the survivors’ oral history testimonies and combine that with background historical study.  They use this material to create short films telling the life stories of the survivors before, during, and after the Holocaust.  Essentially, students perform the work of historians in transforming the raw data of history into compelling narratives, creating and preserving respectful memories of valued members of the community for posterity.  Centropa interviews and photo archives serve as a model and source for research and Centropa films do the same for the final student product.