Wellington included in world-wide doco screening
Wellington will feature on a map highlighting cities around the world where the film is ‘Who will write our history’, a documentary about the secret archive of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War 2.a particular film screening has taken place.
Set up by Nazi Germany in November 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland’s capital city enclosed 400,000 Jews in an area of 3.4 square kilometres, with an average of about 9 persons per room. Most were murdered at death camps.
The film is about historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who gathered a secret band of journalists, scholars, and artists imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto to collect and record the story of the war from the Jewish point of view. Known by the code name Oyneg Shabes, their goal was to defy their murderous enemy with the ultimate weapon – the truth. They risked everything so that their archive would survive, even if they did not.
In fact, of the group of about 60, only three survived to the end of World War 2. Their collected material – eye-witness accounts, diaries, posters, drawings, and poems – was buried in metal boxes and three milk cans, one of which is still missing.
On 27 January 2019, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, ‘Who Will Write Our History’ screened at 355 venues in 55 countries. This success has led to a second round of screenings in May, including Wellington, which will be commemorated by the world map.
The doomed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on 19 April 1943 and ended with the total destruction of the ghetto on 16 May 1943. Wellington’s screening of ‘Who will write out history’ is on 16 May, exactly 76 years after the uprising’s last day. It is supported by the Polish Embassy and is presented by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand.
The 95-minute film screens at the City Gallery in Civic Square, and ticket details can be obtained at www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/films1.html and may also be purchased at the door, for $20 (concessions $15). A discussion will follow the screening.
