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Rescue and Resistance

Extraordinary actions in times of conflict, including Righteous Gentiles, Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, and other individual or organized actions

Rescue and Resistance

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A Place to Save Your Life: The Shanghai Jews

22 minutes
Source: Filmakers Library

Seeking refuge from Nazi terror, some 17,000 Jews traveled to Shanghai, one of the few places that did not require a visa. Although a few Jews already lived in China, the Europeans found life there strange and difficult. Juxtaposing interviews with survivors with archival photographs, this film recounts the days when Jews lived in China under Japanese rule. Although the Japanese forced the exiles into a ghetto, they did not follow Hitler's extermination plan.

 Library Resource December 15, 2009
ADL Pays Tribute to ‘Mexican Schindler’ for helping save 40,000

The story "ADL Pays Tribute to ‘Mexican Schindler' for helping save 40,000" describes an event where the Anti-Defamation

Gilberto Bosques Saldivar biography

Courage to Care: Gilberto Bosques Saldivar

 

 Facing Today December 16, 2008
As If It Were Yesterday

85 minutes, black & white
(French & English subtitles)
Source: Facets

 Library Resource December 15, 2009
Bearing Witness

21 minutes
Source: Social Studies School Service

This documentary examines the role of American soldiers in the liberation of concentration camps at the end of World War II. The film combines historical footage and stills of the camps (including photographs taken by the witnesses themselves) with the powerful testimony of those Americans who were among the first to see the camps upon liberation. In addition, the veterans describe the enduring impact that witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust has had on their lives.

 Library Resource December 15, 2009
Bonhoeffer, Agent of Grace

90 minutes
Source: PBS Video

What is a moral person to do in a time of savage immorality? That question tormented Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German clergyman of great distinction who actively opposed Hitler and the Nazis. His convictions cost him his life. The Nazis hanged him on April 9, 1945, less than a month before the end of the war. Bonhoeffer's last years, his participation in the German resistance and his moral struggle are dramatized in this film. Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace sheds light on the little-known efforts of the German resistance.

 Library Resource May 17, 2010
Choosing to Rescue

In Germany, the government imprisoned anyone caught sheltering a Jew. In Poland, the penalty was death. Yet, about 2 percent of the Polish Christian population chose to hide Jews. They did so in a nation with a long history of antisemitism. After the war, sociologist Nechama Tec interviewed a number of the rescuers. One factory worker told her sadly that she had done very little during the war. She had saved only one Jew and she had rescued that person only by chance. As her story unfolded, Tec discovered that Stefa Dworek had gone to incredible lengths to save a stranger.

 Publication Readings May 6, 2010
Courage to Care

30 minutes, color
Source: out of print

This film contains profiles of individuals during the Third Reich who helped protect Jews in France, Holland and Poland, and of Jews who were saved by non-Jews. The film raises questions about what motivated rescuers to assist victims in Nazi-occupied Europe and what moral and ethical dilemmas non-Jews confronted when deciding to engage in rescue work.

Related lesson:
Rescuers of the Holocaust: Taking a Stand

 Library Resource December 15, 2009
Daring to Resist: Three Women Face the Holocaust

57 minutes
Source: Women Make Movies

 Library Resource December 15, 2009
Decision-Making in Times of Injustice Lesson 15
 Lesson Plan March 26, 2009
Diplomats for the Damned

50 minutes
Source: Amazon.com

This film brings to light the stories of unsung heroes like Carl Lutz of Switzerland, Aristides de Sousa Mendes of Portugal, Hiram Bingham of the United States and George Ferdinand Duckwitz of Germany. By issuing visas, falsifying papers and cutting backroom deals, they risked their careers and lives in their lonely, noble crusades to rescue the condemned from the clutches of the Nazi regime.

 Library Resource December 15, 2009
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