On Wednesday May 15, the 28 students in MTA’s senior elective course “Names, Not Numbers©” got together with members of their family and Holocaust Survivors for the screening of their film: “Names, Not Numbers, A Movie in the Making.” It is MTA’s 18th year participating in this program, led by program creator, Tova Fish Rosenberg, and coordinated by Rivka Djavaheri.
“Names, Not Numbers©” is a Holocaust oral history film documentary project. Students learn first hand about the Holocaust by making their own professional documentary. Professionals—renowned journalists, documentary filmmakers and guest speakers—instruct the students in interviewing techniques, videography and editing. The students interview, film and edit the survivors’ testimonies which are then combined into a final documentary.
The event Wednesday night was the culmination of the entire project this year. MTA was privileged to see the return of five of the six survivors who were interviewed back in December, along with members of their family, to view the final film. Students and survivors were served a catered dinner while listening to speeches from Menahel Rabbi Shimon Schenker, NNN founder Tova Rosenberg and a number of student representatives about the impact that “Names Not Numbers©” has had on the life of each student participatnt. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the special importance and relevance of Holocaust remembrance in the days following October 7. Through their participation in “Names, Not Numbers©,” these 28 students have become “witnesses to the witnesses.”
Marlit Wandel, from Germany, was deported to Poland with her family before the war began. She spent the early years of the war in the Radom ghetto and was later transported with her mother and sister through nine camps before they escaped from a Death March. She wrote a book detailing her life’s story, “Nourished By Faith.” Jehuda Lindenblatt, from Budapest, Hungary, survived the war with his family in various safe houses, like the “Glass House” set up by Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz. Tibor Spitz, from Slovakia, survived with his family by hiding in a makeshift underground burrow in the forest for seven months. Noemi Spitz, from Bratislava, survived as an infant with her family. Malka Shick was born in Italy where her family had fled and was hidden by righteous gentiles. Sonja Geismar and her family were on the doomed ship the St. Louis and eventually were allowed into England. Much appreciation goes to these six survivors for sharing their moving stories and joining for the culminating event.
