On Tuesday, June 6, the extended community is invited to a screening of the new film “Destination Unknown,” which was produced by Gigatel in association with the USC Shoah Foundation. Making a unique contribution to the history of the Holocaust, the film captures the pain that still haunts Holocaust survivors 70 years after liberation and the resilience which has enabled them to live with the memories. The movie will be screened at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, 110 South Orange Avenue in Livingston, and admission is free of charge.
Directed by Claire Ferguson and produced by Llion Roberts, who spent 14 years accumulating the testimonies on which the film is based, “Destination Unknown” blends intimate testimony with immersive archives to bring the stories of 12 Holocaust survivors to the screen.
The film was released on the heels of Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom HaShoah) when the film’s central character and Holocaust survivor, Edward Mosberg, attended “The March of the Living” alongside thousands of participants in Poland. Mosberg will visit the UK for the June release of the film.
With no narration and no expert interviews, the film relies on the survivors’ own words to weave a vivid narrative of lives stained by genocide. A seamless mosaic of first-hand accounts, rare archives from the time and family footage from after the war, the film traces their journeys from the outbreak of war through the misery of the ghettos to the unimaginable horrors of the camps. The survivors share their memories, some for the first time, some for the last, bringing their experiences to a new generation.
The film exposes viewers to those who survived the Holocaust in hiding, those who fought as partisans, and those who endured camps such as Treblinka, Mauthausen and Auschwitz-Birkenau. While a few managed to escape, most had to try to find a way to stay alive until the end of the war.
The stories of those featured do not end with liberation. “Destination Unknown” chronicles how they had to survive the chaos that came afterward and attempt to build new lives.
The film includes an interview with one of the few escapees from the terror of Treblinka, and an exclusive interview with Mietek Pemper, who helped Oskar Schindler compile his list, as well as a revealing story about Schindler himself from one of those he saved.
The screening on June 6 is in partnership with schools and organizations around New York and New Jersey including The Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, Golda Och Academy, The Jewish Educational Center, SAR Academy, Rutgers Hillel, American Society for Yad Vashem, Museum of Jewish Heritage, USC Shoah Foundation and Israel Bonds, along with Synagogue of the Suburban Torah and Congregation Etz Chaim, both in Livingston.
“I was inspired to start this project 14 years ago when I visited Auschwitz and wanted to ensure that the remarkable stories of those who survived the Holocaust were preserved for posterity,” commented Producer Llion Roberts. “In the years since, I have met and interviewed a remarkable range of incredible people whose lives are an inspiration to us all. From the 400 hours of testimonies that I recorded, I wanted a film which captured the essence of their experience, made a contribution to the history of those times and perpetuated the memory of the Shoah.”
Adds Director Claire Ferguson, “I wanted to make a film where the only voices are those of the survivors themselves, to capture something of the intimacy and immediacy I felt when talking with some of them directly. The challenge was to weave those individual voices together in a way that created a wider story, one that explored not only the pain of the Holocaust itself, but the building of new lives afterwards. My overriding question was ‘How can you make a life after such pain?’”
“We are honored to be hosting a screening of ‘Destination Unknown,’ which features Mr. Mosberg, a heroic voice of the Holocaust,” remarked Rabbi Eliezer Rubin, Kushner head of school and Klatt Family Rosh HaYeshiva.
The movie has already garnered rave reviews. Branko Lustig, producer, “Schindler’s List,” commented, “This film is the best response to the Nazi solution of the annihilation of the Jewish nation and of all those who, according to Nazi ideology, were not worthy to live. The film shows that all those who survived the camps were primarily people, people who having experienced all the horrors have proved to themselves and to the world that they were worthy to survive; survive to talk about the truth the world should listen to and learn from it—so it happens never again. Unfortunately, many of them are not among us anymore but they left this film as their legacy, to talk in their name.”
