The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Auschwitz

Michael Shapiro’s VOICES Premieres, a Requiem Honoring Victims of the Holocaust

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More than 20 years ago, longtime Chappaqua resident Michael Shapiro found himself thumbing through a poetry compilation about the Holocaust written from the perspective of Jews in countries such as Greece, Italy and France at at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The compilation, And The World Stood Silent: Sephardic Poetry of the Holocaust, chronicles the life of nearly 160,000 Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain in 1492 and who ultimately perished in the Holocaust.

At the time, Shapiro’s work focused primarily on curating concerts featuring music of Jews who had fled the Holocaust and emigrated to Hollywood such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold who scored several films most notably The Adventures of Robin Hood. Shapiro also organized concerts featuring music from composers who had lived in Teresienstadt, a ghetto in Czechoslovakia–a hotbed of musical creativity with composers such as Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krása and Viktor Ullmann residing there.

Shapiro lost about 75 members of his own family among the six million Eastern European Jews massacred during the Holocaust. He yearned for the chance to immerse himself in how the Holocaust impacted Jews in the countries included in the poetry compilation and to share his own family history. Shapiro was immediately moved by the literature. “The poetry hit me completely. It was so powerful,” recalls Shapiro. A few years ago, conductor Deborah Simpkin King of Ember Choral Arts, inspired him to write the 60-minute plus work and is conducting Shapiro’s piece, which took him just seven months to write. “It flew out of me,” explains Shapiro. Shapiro was intentional in having the piece be a requiem. “Nothing gets to people like the sound of a chorus with an orchestra,” he noted.

Shapiro has written more than 100 works for orchestral, theatrical, film, chamber, choral and vocal forces throughout his career. His works have been performed by many of the greatest orchestras and performers in North America and Europe and for years he served as the conductor of the Chappaqua Orchestra. His music has been played on BBC, National Public Radio, SiriusXM and is available on major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Shapiro has always been interested in exploring themes such as prejudice and racial divisiveness in his music. In fact, one of Shapiro’s most well-known pieces is the score from Frankenstein which has been performed more than 50 times internationally. “I think I was attracted to Frankenstein because I was interested in the way the monster was depicted and treated as the other.”

Shapiro hopes his “Voices of the Holocaust” concerts “give a voice to people who no longer have a voice.” While the Nazis murdered six million Jews, they also targeted other groups such as Roma (gypsies), homosexuals and people with disabilities. This same hatred is happening today, Shapiro is quick to point out. He felt he had to write the piece now, especially with the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling each year to 300,000-350,000 survivors in 2022 according to the nonprofit Holocaust group, Claims Conference.

The premiere of the piece took place at Temple Shaaray Tefila on November 9th and at Manhattan’s famed Central Synagogue on November 10th. The timing was purposely chosen to coincide with the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, ‘The Night of Broken Glass’, when Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and homes were destroyed by the Nazis in Germany and in Nazi occupied territories in Austria and Czechoslovakia. In the two-day spree of massive violence against the Jews, 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to prisons or concentration camps.

The premiere at Central Synagogue also included a Q & A session with Paul Shaffer, the former musical director and band leader of Late Night with David Letterman. It also featured tenor soloist Daniel Mutlu, the Senior Cantor of Central Synagogue and the American Modern Ensemble. “Mutlu has a phenomenal voice. He really is one of the greatest cantors in the country,” exclaims Shapiro.

On the Horizon

The concert will also debut at the Reagan Library in California performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and conducted by Grant Gershon. The LA performance will coincide with the Auschwitz exhibition at the library for ten months starting this spring. The moving exhibition originally was showcased at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in downtown New York City. Visit MichaelShapiro.com.

Teaching History With a New Consciousness and through a Personal Lens

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The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and with it, the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, an eight-day celebration honoring the triumph of the Jewish people over the Syrian Greeks. The holiday is joyous, complete with gift giving, dreidel spinning, menorah lighting and lots of latkes.

For me, however, a teacher trip through the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) to Germany and Poland last summer caused a subtle shift in the way I think about Hanukkah and my career as an educator.

As a social studies teacher and self-proclaimed history nerd, I wanted to learn about this dark period in human history up close and bring these experiences back to my classroom. I can listen and read and even watch Ken Burns’ excellent documentary, “The US and the Holocaust”, but none of this makes history come alive the way walking along the streets of Berlin, Warsaw and Krakow did. It was here that I saw the physical evidence of a once thriving Jewish life, now all but gone. I walked in the very places where the Warsaw ghetto confined its Jewish residents. I visited concentration camps, like Auschwitz-Birkenau where millions were murdered and left with the picture of a pair of shoes that had once belonged to a small child seared in my mind.

Memory became paramount on this trip, as I scrambled to imprint every lecture we heard, every object we saw, and every place we visited into my consciousness. Our tour guide at Auschwitz, a Polish Professor and activist, reminded us that the simple act of visiting the death camp had afforded us the chance to bear witness to this evil tragedy and therefore we now shouldered the responsibility to make sure the next generation remembers. This has never been so important as it is today when Shoah survivors are diminishing in number.

This is where teachers come in.

As educators we make content choices. While a curriculum is prescribed in broad strokes, it is the teacher who decides to spend a week on World War II, and two days on the Cold War. Or vice versa. In so many ways we are the gatekeepers of history, and as such we have a responsibility to continually learn and consider how we will present material to our students.

As much as we want history to come alive for our students, we need to make it vibrant for ourselves. When we learn, they learn, and if there is a personal connection to the material all the better. I certainly cannot arrange for a field trip to Europe for my students, but I am certain when we find ourselves in our World War II unit next spring, there will be an increased interest because I can offer a personal lens with which they can view and understand this time period.

I hope that my enthusiasm will be palpable as I show them the photo of their English teacher and me straddling the wall with one foot in the former East Berlin and one foot in the West. I am excited to answer their questions as they look through the 100-page photo journal I created to try and capture the essence of my experience.

There are even pedagogical ideas from the trip–the idea of memorializing, the purpose of museums, the contrast with how our nation and Germany grapples with its dark history that have easily fit into our earlier units of study. In essence, the trip has rooted itself in my consciousness as a teacher, a Jewish adult and as a human.

My students remind me daily of my responsibility to help them develop compassion, empathy, and an ability to grapple with the darker side of human history. As for me, I will continue to celebrate the triumph of the Maccabees, and admire the warmth and light the menorah brings into my home. But my lens has shifted ever so slightly and I can never look at it in quite the same way. The on-going struggle of the Jewish people, which so many ethnic and racial groups experience is built into the story of Hanukkah, and this year I will light the candles and say the blessings for the six million European Jews who cannot.

Marissa DeFranca (left) and Laurie Lichtenstein, teachers from the Seven Bridges Middle School in Chappaqua, during the HHREC trip last summer.

Bearing Witness at the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

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Train tracks leading into Auschwitz – prisoners were transported in cattle cars

Elie Wiesel stated “To hear a witness is to be a witness.”  I am a witness. On January 27th 2020, I traveled to Auschwitz for the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz with 105 Auschwitz Survivors from around the world and 50 world leaders to commemorate the victims and honor the Survivors.

The memorial service took place on the grounds of the death camp where

1.1 million, mostly Jews, were murdered. We sat under a large heated tent that straddled the train tracks that had dragged prisoners into Birkenau, often to their death in the gas chambers. As Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, stated “I am here, simply, as a Jew. And, like all Jews everywhere, this place, this terrible place called Auschwitz has sadly become an inseparable part of us. Auschwitz is like a scar from a terrible trauma.  It never goes away and the pain never stops.”

Walking into the camp I quietly reflected on my grandparents stories of survival. I took in the remains of the barracks, including the barrack where my grandfather spent his youth being tortured against his will. The weather was cold but I was well bundled and couldn’t help but think about my grandfather who was forced to spend his time in Auschwitz without a warm jacket or hat or gloves.

I listened to each Survivor as they shared intimate details about their own personal stories, details that humanized the unfathomable atrocities of Auschwitz. Details that I will shout out to the world and share with future generations so they know the Holocaust happened to men and women and children with personalities and stories, like all of us, not to abstract numbers.

The Survivors all related stories about how upon their arrival at Auschwitz over 75 years ago, they were stripped of their dignity, forced to strip down to nothing in front of all, have their heads shaved, their possessions stolen and arms permanently tattooed with a number.  94- year-old Auschwitz Survivor Batsheva Dagan spoke about her arrival and subsequent assignment of being forced to sort belongings of those sent to the gas chambers.  She cried to the crowd,  “Where was everybody? Where was the world who could see that, hear that and yet did nothing to save all those thousands?”

Turning A Blind Eye on the Jewish Refugee Crisis

In his speech Lauder explained “And when European Jews begged the world for a safe harbor, someplace to go, the entire world turned its back on them. Even my own country–the beacon of freedom–turned out its light on the Jewish people when they needed it most. The US organized a conference in Evian, France in July of 1938 to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis. There were a lot of lovely speeches but the US did not let any additional Jewish refugees in and every other country in attendance followed their lead. There were 32 countries and none of them, except for the tiny Dominican Republic wanted any more Jews.  Hitler saw this. Four months later came Kristallnacht. And again, there was no world reaction. Hitler tested the world. And at every step he saw the truth–the world did not care. That’s when he knew he could build this factory of death. Evian led to Auschwitz. Kristallnacht led to Auschwitz.  World anti-Semitism led to Auschwitz.”

Survivor Josef Kreitenberg commented “I don’t know how I survived but I just kept on believing because that’s all you could do.”

Survivors are Dwindling

As the years pass and the eye witnesses who can say “I was in Auschwitz” dwindle in numbers, these Survivors made it their duty to return to ensure the world does not forget! Polish President Andrzej Duda vocalized “We have with us the last living Survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes. The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying, but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it.”

For some of the Survivors it was their first trip back since that day 75 years ago when they were finally free from their terror. However, for most it will be their last. But to all the Survivors who returned the memories of what occurred inside the infamous gate bearing the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (translation: work sets you free) are no less haunting today. Survivors continue to have nightmares as their memories are still fresh. However, Survivors feel the need to share these painful memories with future generations so the world will never forget, especially today when we witness the ominous growth of anti-Semitic attacks and hatred around the world.

The author with Survivor Angela (Angi) Orosz Richt. Angi was born in Auschwitz on December 21 one month prior to the camp’s liberation.

No Graves to Visit

Some of the Survivors returned to Auschwitz to memorialize their family members murdered there. These Survivors whose family members went up in flames in the gas chambers and crematorium do not have a grave to visit.  To them, Auschwitz is a cemetery. Survivor Tova Friedman said “My going back is my telling them, I remember you.”

Survivor Ben Lesser explained: “People would love to forget the hard truths and that’s why we need to keep coming back here to refresh our memories and keep the world from acquiring amnesia. Unfortunately, we can’t live forever. What happens after we are gone, I don’t know.”

  93-year-old Survivor Marian Turski declared “Auschwitz did not fall from the skies.” He urged the next generation to be vigilant.  “Do not be indifferent when you hear lies, historical lies. Do not be indifferent when you see the past is stretched to fit the current political needs. Do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated against.”

Survivor Marian Turski

The 11th Commandment

He explained that the 11th commandment should be “Thou shall not be indifferent.”  He warned that if you “don’t heed the 11th commandment you cannot be surprised when you see (another) Auschwitz fall from the sky.” He explained that if people are indifferent when incremental steps of discrimination are implemented, then another Holocaust could happen. Turksi reminded the room that what allowed the Holocaust to happen was not just the evil of the Nazi’s but also the indifference of the world.

Lauder emphasized “We will never eradicate Anti-Semitism. It’s a deadly virus that has been with us for over 2,000 years. But we cannot look the other way and pretend it isn’t happening. That’s what people did throughout the 1930’s and that is what led to Auschwitz.”

The Nazis tried to dehumanize and obliterate all Jews of Europe. But the 75th Commemoration attended by over 200 survivors proved that Nazi’s did not win. These Survivors signify that the Jewish people won. They survived and were resilient. “There is one more part of the Auschwitz story that no one ever talks about.  When the Survivors were liberated from this Nazi nightmare, they never sought revenge.  They lost their mothers and fathers. Sisters and brothers… After everything that happened to them, these Jewish Survivors just walked out of these gates and went on to build new lives, raise new families, work hard and create,” said Lauder.

After the long day of memorializing in Auschwitz, we arrived back at the hotel for a late dinner. By 11 p.m., Auschwitz Survivor David Wisnia asked for a microphone and explained that he wrote a song while in Auschwitz–a parody about life in the death camp. On January 27, 2020, 75 years after the liberation, David Wisnia, a man full of life, sang this song proudly from his wheelchair to a room full of witnesses who will NEVER FORGET.

All the Survivors agree that they do not want their past to be their grandchildren’s future. The Survivors on this journey did not talk about anger or revenge, but rather their love for their new life and family.   I felt embraced by love on the trip by Survivors who ironically were treated with the worst type of hate, and whose lives were torn apart by hate. Through conversations with the Survivors on my journey and with my grandparents throughout my life, I have learned that the Holocaust is not just a story of hate. It is also a story of resilience, humanity, love and kindness. People who are taught to put others before themselves; people who are taught to love, those people do not hate–rather, they choose life.

Concert Introduces Westchester Residents to the Music of Viennese Composer Viktor Ullmann Who Perished During the Holocaust

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Dominique Hellsten
Photo BY Ben Livengood

More than twenty years ago, dramatic soprano and Chappaqua resident Dominique Hellsten first heard the music of composer Viktor Ullmann who ultimately perished in Auschwitz. “It had a profound impact and it never left me,” said Hellsten, whose eyes teared up during our interview as she shares why she is so enamored with his music and passionate about bringing it to a wider audience. At the time, the Swedish-born Hellsten was living in London and performing at such venues as the Royal Albert Hall, the Purcell Room, Southwark Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

She was first introduced to Vienna-born composer Viktor Ullmann’s music through her UK-based publicist at the time, Diana Hirst. Hellsten has always had a special affinity for art song (also known as lieder in German) specifically music of this genre composed in the 20th and 21st century. Ullmann was a prolific composer of this particular genre who wrote more than 20 pieces while imprisoned in Theresienstadt, a concentration camp located in Czechoslovakia that served as a transport point specifically designed by Hitler to deceive International Red Cross workers and other inspectors.

Much has been written of the incredibly diverse group of artists who were interned at the camp from opera composers, to choral directors to chamber musicians. The camp was a hotbed of musical activity notes author Joza Terezin in the book “Music of Terezin”. In fact, the prisoners gave several concerts and performances for the Nazis as well as fellow prisoners. Ullmann known for his talent was assigned to the Administration of Free Time Activities (Freizeitgestaltung in German) in the camp as a music critic and organizer of musical rehearsals.

Craig Ketter
PHOTO BY Jonathan Levin

Concert Explores Ullmann’s Music

Hellsten, who today offers private voice and piano coaching to students throughout Westchester, was delighted to share Ullmann’s music in a recent musical concert featuring much of Ullmann’s work as well as other deceased composers of the art song genre to audience members. The lunchtime concert was held at Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester in Chappaqua held on October 17th, a day prior to Ullmann’s death in Auschwitz 75 years ago. The concert, funded by the Ullmann Project, is part of a Lunch N’ Learn series in which seven Northern Westchester synagogues offer cultural and educational programming to their congregants. She appeared alongside pianist Craig Ketter, a sought after pianist and accompanist in the Greater New York area including a favorite of the Metropolitan Opera during auditions for their opera company.

Hellsten not only performed a repertoire of Ullmann’s works and his Viennese contemporaries such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alexander Zemlinsky who both survive the war, but also interspersed between the pieces, she tells the fate of Ullmann, his contemporaries and how Ullmann’s music which the Nazis deemed “degenerate” was ultimately discovered. To the uninitiated ear, Ullmann’s work can be somewhat challenging. She finds it very rewarding when audience members appreciate his bold music.

Why Hellsten Performs Ullmann’s Music

Hellsten feels a special obligation to bring Ullmann’s music and story to light. “I’m not Jewish but my parents were in Helsinki and experienced war as children because Stalin invaded Finland during the Winter War,” explains Hellsten. Her parents were put on a train wearing white outfits with thousands of Finnish children bound for Sweden which was a safe zone. They had identification tags around their necks stating their name and where they came from. The Soviets were bombing cities along the coast of Finland her parents were forced to disembark the train and hide in the snow.

“The Winter War only lasted three months but I recall talking about it a lot with my parents. I also remember seeing a documentary on TV when I was about 10 or 11 about prisoners in Auschwitz being gassed and I never forgot it. We talked about these things a lot as a family,” recalls Hellsten. Just as the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling, Hellsten’s parents were the last generation from Finland that remembers the horrors of the Winter War.  Hellsten is deeply concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism. “It is so upsetting and the fact that 65% of American high schoolers don’t know anything about Auschwitz is very disturbing,” she says.

The Rediscovery of Ullmann’s Works

Ullmann often said that “music can diminish evil”. While imprisoned at Theresienstadt, Ullmann was able to concentrate on writing music and he even composed an opera titled “The Emperor of Atlantis.” The protagonist is believed to be a pastiche of Hitler and the Nazis refuse to let this piece be performed. Still Ullmann continues to write music and in October 1944 he gets word that he is going to be transported to Auschwitz. He packs up his music and is preparing to take it with him but at the last second decides to give it to his fellow prisoner, Dr. Emil Utitz. Utitz is instructed by Ullmann to give the music to his friend Dr. H.G. Adler if Utitz survives. Both men miraculously survive while Ullmann is sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Dr. H.G. Adler was a poet and philosopher and Ullmann had set many of Adler’s poems to music. After the war Dr. Utitz and Dr. Adler meet and he is given Ullmann’s music for safekeeping. Dr. Adler eventually emigrates to London.

One day a family friend, the British conductor Kerry Woodward visits Adler and he asks him to view the music stored in his attic. The conductor looks at the music and is particularly impressed with the “Emperor of Atlantis” score. So much so that he ultimately helps secures its worldwide debut in 1975 with the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam with Woodward conducting. Additional works by Ullmann are also rediscovered due to this chance encounter.

“The story is touching and I want him to finally get his voice heard,” sums up Hellsten. She hopes to bring Ullmann’s bold and dramatic music to a larger audience and would love to stage his opera, “Emperor of the Atlantis”. But for now, she is glad that residents in her hometown had the opportunity to hear his music and his story.

HBO’s “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm” Airing January 27 Moves Bet Torah Audience

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Family Documentary Presented by HBO with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, the short film “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm” debuts this Saturday, January 27, from 6 p.m. to 6:20 p.m (ET/PT).

“A17606. That was his number and he told us back then that your number was your name. That is all he was to them.” Elliott Saiontz

Article and Photos by Grace Bennett

Elliott Saiontz with his great grandfather Jack Feldman

Mount Kisco, January 22–Hundreds of parents and their children packed the Bet Torah Synagogue sanctuary for an early screening of “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm,” a powerful 19-minute HBO family documentary directed and produced by Amy Schatz. Filmed two years ago, it depicts 10-year-old Elliott’s adoring relationship with his great grandfather, the soft spoken and big hearted 90-year-old Jack Feldman. Through the film, Elliott first asks Jack questions about his experiences, and then we hear Jack’s heartbreaking answers.

At the film’s start–and with a backdrop of historical footage and the striking animation of acclaimed artist Jeff Scher throughout–Jack describes happy childhood memories of Poland (in his hometown of Sosnoweicz) predating the war. He tells his great grandson of an eclectic hat collection or of watching soccer games. Jack speaks of a close knit family, a successful family business and summertime vacations.

The documentary quickly segues into Jack describing harrowing experiences surviving Nazi brutality… from the forced wearing of yellow stars, confinement in a ghetto (“We had maybe 15-20 people sleeping in a room.”) to his separation from his family (“They grabbed me and took me away.”), of Auschwitz and of the notorious death march.  (“A lot of people couldn’t make it. Thousands and thousands just died.”)

Bet Torah’s Rabbi Aaron Brusso and Edna Friedberg, a historian with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, spoke before the film with remarks sensitive to and frequently directed to the children in the room. “History is what happens to real people. It’s not just a flat idea; it’s something that happens to me and to you,” said Friedberg. She challenged the kids to explore their personal connections to the Holocaust as well. “If you have a connection to it, you as kids can be detectives on it too.”

Following the screening, Feldman and Elliott  participated in a panel discussion. Jack was asked how old he is today. Not missing a beat, he quipped: 72.  Laughter filled the sanctuary–the light moment a reprieve from the darkness of what was being discussed. Elliott’s grandfather, Sammy Feldman (92-year-old Jack Feldman’s first son) told attendees: “Between the ages of 12 and 17, hopefully you were enjoying your life… the Holocaust changed all that for the children of Europe. They were bullied and lost all their privileges. They lost all their rights.”

Rabbi Brusso noted fondly, “I wish I had a grandpoppy Jack.” Turning to Elliott, he offered his appreciation for “how you hold his hand and rub his arm.” He compared that kind of tenderness to Nazis “who treated people like objects.”  Elliott’s example of caring and kindness, in contrast, are “how we preserve every human being.”

On the panel, too: Elliott’s brother Jared and his mom Stacey Saiontz (“without whom it is safe to say we would not be having this program today,” noted Freidberg). Saiontz, a member of the group GenerationsForward of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, described a serendipitous meeting between herself and Sheila Nevins, a producer at HBO–ultimately leading to the film’s production. Elliott’s younger brother Jared, 10, answered a child’s question about when he learned of the Holocaust. He said his whole life he listened to his Mom interviewing his grandpa and started slowly learning.

Questions to the panel were mostly from children attending. More than one questioner seemed to want to find the good in human souls. Children are after all instructed to seek out ‘the helpers.’  “Was there ever a Nazi soldier undercover who tried to help the Jews?” one young girl asked. Elliott related that his grandfather was helped by a Nazi who knew his father and protected him from selection to the gas chamber. “Individual choices made a huge difference and could save a life,” said Friedberg. But they were also sadly the exception. 

“Why were Jewish people blamed for Germany’s problems?” another asked. Friedberg explained how the Nazi regime employed the dynamics of bullying to encourage the persecution of Jews. “People feel powerful by leaving one person on the outside,” she said. The Nazis were “building on an existing hatred and stereotypes about Jews.” The Nazis also targeted and murdered hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gay men, political prisoners and persons with mental and physical disabilities. 

But by far, it was the Jewish population that was decimated. Before the war, Friedberg continued, there were nine million Jewish people living in Europe; six million were murdered. “Two out of three.” She invited attendees to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn more.

Grace Bennett is publisher and editor in chief of the Inside Press, and the 2017 recipient of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center’s Bernard Rosenshein ‘Courage to Care’ award.

Resources:

www.mjhnyc.org/‎   The Museum of Jewish Heritage

https://www.ushmm.org/  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

www.hhrecny.org Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center

 

Release info from HBO:

THE NUMBER ON GREAT-GRANDPA’S ARM was directed and produced by Amy Schatz; executive producer, Sheila Nevins; producer, Lynn Sadofsky; edited by Tom Patterson; animation by Jeff Scher; director of photography, Alex Rappoport; music composed by Keith Kenniff; production executive, Susan Benaroya; supervising producer, Lisa Heller.

It debuts this Saturday, January 27, from 6 p.m. to 6:20 p.m (ET/PT).

The film will also be available on HBO On Demand, HBO NOW, HBO GO and affiliate . THE NUMBER ON GREAT-GRANDPA’S ARM will be included in a signature initiative that is part of a robust education program offered by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. This effort is designed to use the film with a companion special installation and curriculum to connect stories of the Holocaust across generations.Additionally, companion segments featuring young people in conversation with survivors will be made available on HBO digital platforms.

Director-producer Amy Schatz’s notable HBO projects include the recent “Saving My Tomorrow” series, plus “An Apology to Elephants,” the “Classical Baby” series, “A Child’s Garden of Poetry,” “‘Twas the Night,” “Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales” and “Through a Child’s Eyes: September 11, 2001.” Her work has won five DGA Awards, seven Emmy® Awards and three Peabody Awards.

Animator Jeff Scher’s work is found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Academy Film Archive, Hirshhorn Museum and the Pompidou Centre.