WATERTOWN, NY (January 11, 2023); In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, WPBS-TV is partnering with Roswell P. Flower Memorial Library and Degel Israel Congregation to bring a free public screening of excerpts from the PBS documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust, a film by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein. This film explores America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history, and examines the very real and current effects on today’s society. After the screening, a discussion will be led by Sarah H. Baldwin of Degel Israel Congregation in Watertown, NY. The screening and discussion will take place on Wednesday, January 25th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm in the South Reading Room of the Flower Memorial Library in Watertown, NY. This event is free and open to the public – Attendees are asked to register at: wpbstv.org/events.
Inspired in part by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibition and supported by its historical resources, the film examines the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany in the context of global antisemitism and racism, the eugenics movement in the United States and race laws in the American south. The series, written by Geoffrey Ward, sheds light on what the U.S. government and American people knew and did as the catastrophe unfolded in Europe.
“The U.S. and the Holocaust asks us to think differently about our country’s history,” said Sylvia Bugg, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming at PBS. “This includes challenging conventional wisdom about values that we hold very dear and how we influenced the policies of other countries. This is an important film that will spark conversations in many areas, which we will support with educational materials in our classrooms and outreach in communities around the country. We will also be working with stations and other partners to ensure that this film reaches as many people as possible.”
The U.S. and the Holocaust can be viewed in its entirety on WPBS Passport. WPBS will also be re-broadcasting the powerful six-hour series Fridays at 9:00 pm on WPBS-TV, starting January 6, 2023 .
Educational materials for middle and high school classrooms, prepared by PBS Learning Media in collaboration with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other leading Holocaust education experts, are available at the Ken Burns in the Classroom site. These materials include clips from the film as well as other resources that connect to its core themes, such as immigration policy, racism, isolationism, discrimination and more. International release will be explored along with translation into Spanish and other languages. UNUM, Ken Burns’ website that looks at the connections between the past and current events, will also utilize other films from the Florentine Films library to facilitate conversations about the Holocaust and other moments in history.
The U.S. and the Holocaust is a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, D.C. Directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein. Telescript by Geoffrey C. Ward. Produced by Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick, Ken Burns and Mike Welt. Edited by Tricia Reidy, ACE, and Charles E. Horton. Co-producer is Lucas B. Frank. Original music produced by Johnny Gandelsman. Cinematography by Buddy Squires, ASC, and Wojciech Staroń, PSC. Narrated by Peter Coyote. Voices include Adam Arkin, Hope Davis, Paul Giamatti, Olivia Gilliatt, Elliott Gould, Murphy Guyer, Werner Herzog, Josh Lucas, Carolyn McCormick, Joe Morton, Liam Neeson, Matthew Rhys, Meryl Streep, Bradley Whitford and Helena Zengel. The executive in charge for WETA is John F. Wilson. Executive producer is Ken Burns.
About WPBS
WPBS is a PBS station serving approximately 650,000 households throughout Northern New York and Eastern Ontario via cable, satellite, Internet and over-the-air distribution. WPBS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate, inform, and engage its two-nation region with exceptional and trusted content across multiple platforms. Its vision is to be the premier provider of extraordinary public media that instills wonder and curiosity across generations and borders. More information about WPBS, including a full channel listing, is available at wpbstv.org, or by following WPBS on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
