The Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education

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Women and The Holocaust in Film

Women and The Holocaust in Film

Thursday, Oct. 13

Oma and Bella

4:00-5:15 p.m. | Ingram 100 | Directed by Alexa Karolinski

“Oma and Bella is an intimate portrait of two elderly Jewish women in Berlin with humor, powerful stories, and a deep fondness for good food. As the documentary follows them through their daily lives, a portrait emerges of two Holocaust survivors who stayed in Germany. They answer questions of heritage, memory and identity, ultimately, through the recreation of the sumptuous foods from their childhood.” – Director Alexa Karolinski

The Nazi Officer's Wife

5:30-7:10 p.m. | Ingram 100 | Directed by Liz Garbus

“Edith Han was an outspoken woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into the Jewish ghetto. Knowing she would become a hunted woman, Edith tore the yellow star from her clothing and went underground. A Christian friend gave Edith her identity papers, and Edith fled to Munich. She got a job at the Red Cross and lived in a boardinghouse outside Munich. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who fell in love with her. And despite her protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity secret. The two of them – the Nazi and his Jewish wife – lived out the ware together, even bearing a child. The film explores faith, family, identity, and love in this complex portrait of a woman who had to bury her true self in order to survive.” – synopsis from www.7thart.com.

The Return

7:30-9:00 p.m. | Ingram 100 | Directed by Adam Zucker

“Before World War Two, Poland’s 3.5 million Jews made the country the epicenter of the Jewish world. Today less than 20,000 Jews live there. Due to the Holocaust and ensuing Soviet era, Poland’s remaining Jews hid their identity from their children. With the fall of communism in 1989 a young generation of Jews began learning their long buried ancestry. The Return focuses on four women in their 20’s who face the unique challenge of trying to create an identity in a vacuum, with little knowledge of their heritage. The Return depicts their valiant efforts at creating a new, authentic Jewish community in a country still regarded in the U.S. as the ‘Jewish graveyard.'” – synopsis from www.7thart.com.