Archive | News RSS feed for this section

Mapping Auschwitz today in LA for International Holocaust Remembrance Day & Survivor Henry Oertelt’s Yahrzeit

27 Jan

Today is Author and Holocaust Survivor Henry Oertelt’s Yahrzeit – the one year anniversary of his death. He died at age 90 after speaking about his experiences surviving the Holocaust for almost forty years. Coincidentally this is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

I optioned Henry’s book, An Unbroken Chain: My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust when he was eighty-seven years old. I knew that time was of the essence. After we came to an agreement, we traveled to Minnesota and met him in person with the rest of his family one memorable September weekend.

Henry read my first draft of the screenplay adaptation of his book and gave us his blessing for the project. After a few years of research, I started volunteering at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust as a docent. Then, the Museum recently came on board as our fiscal partner, giving us credibility and more exposure. After a few years of fundraising, we came up with enough money to produce a high quality short film. We felt this was better than doing nothing. If this film moves people, it could still evolve into a feature length film.

We are now in postproduction with our short film with the working title, Bashert – which means “Meant to Be.” We look forward to sharing it with everyone in the coming months.

Additionally, to commemorate this important day in history, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and their community partners will mark an area the same size as Auschwitz around Los Angeles with a flash event.

To participate, go to their map (sign in with your Google account) and pick your location to participate in this exciting event.

You can also sign up for our text message alert which will update and inform you about Mapping Auschwitz news. To join, text the phrase mapLA to 25827.

Check out the museum website to learn more.

ADL Holocaust Education Training Features Our Subject’s Story

7 Nov

Friday I had the opportunity to participate in a Holocaust Educators training put on by the Anti Defamation League (ADL),  USC Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum of Israel. They distributed copies of Echoes and Reflections, a new multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust. This program allows teachers to choose as little or as much material as they can cover in a specific time period and still cover the subject matter effectively.

On page one, chapter one, they have used a quote from my dear friend, Holocaust Survivor, ninety-six year old Kurt Messerschmidt. Kurt is the brother of Henry Oertelt, my former mentor and author of An Unbroken Chain: My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust. We have optioned Henry’s book in to produce a feature film based on the brothers’amazing survival story. Henry passed away earlier this year at age 90.

Kurt’s quote says,

(more…)

Honor Survivors in Your Area May 1

20 Apr


Yom Hashoah takes place this year on May 1. If you are going to be in LA, consider attending the community wide Holocaust Remembrance Day at 2:45pm at the LA Holocaust Monument in the north end of Pan Pacific Park between Beverly and Third Street. From our experience, there’s nothing more inspiring than visiting with Holocaust Survivors. Most of them are now in their eighties and nineties, but have hardly slowed down, especially with their volunteer efforts and continued pledge to Holocaust Education. There should be several of the museum’s popular speakers in attendance.

The program, In their Own Words, Diaries from the Holocaust, will feature John Loftus, a former U.S. government prosecutor and Army intelligence officer, Nazi hunter and the author of several books, including Belarus Secret: The Secret War against the Jews and his just released, America’s Nazi Secret with new revelations about American funding of the Nazis and government cover ups.

There will be shaded seating for all attendees.

Speaking of shade, there’s a Yom Hashoah ceremony in Phoenix, at Congregation Beth El (the image from last year’s service.) The Phoenix program, titled, “We are a People of Memory” will be featuring Rabbi Bonnie Koppell at 3pm, also on May 1. Each year in Phoenix, the Survivors carry candles in a procession to start the service. We will be filming this community service for the third year in a row and consider it an honor and a privilege.

Henry Oertelt, 1921-2011, St. Paul, Minnesota Inspiration, Teacher to Many

27 Jan

Henry Oertelt by the lake in Minnesota

Today around 9AM Central Time, my friend and mentor, Henry Oertelt, died at age ninety at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Henry had recent cancer treatments and started having increasing complications, weakening and needing more and more help with day-to-day care.

Today, coincidentally, is also the International Day of Remembrance and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era. Every member nation of the U.N. has an obligation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of an international resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide.

For the past few years, I have been privileged to get to know Henry and his family.  I first heard about Henry when I met his granddaughter, Corey, in St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, of all places. Soon, I read his book. It changed my life and I felt a pull that I still can’t explain towards the material – his personal journey and its message. I wrote him a letter to ask if I could option his book, An Unbroken Chain, My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust. Today, we have started a non-profit for Holocaust Education, Six Million for Six Million, and are developing a feature film with the same name.

Henry’s name comes up daily as I regularly discuss my project with potential investors, colleagues, family and friends. I even ended up joining the Phoenix Holocaust Survivor’s Association at their request. Many members ask me if I am a second generation survivor – why else would I show up?  At one point, I said to him, “Henry, I might as well call you my adopted grandfather,” and he laughed and agreed.

Henry’s life story will do more than just inspire and educate young audiences. It will remind adults to be grateful for the blessings in their own lives. No matter what our daily challenges bring, there’s nothing that can put things in perspective more than considering the plight of a Holocaust Survivor who had everything, even their identity, stripped away from them.

Henry is an inspiration simply by the fact that he rebuilt his life, and had a family, including 3 great, grandchildren: Haylie, Taylor, and Chance.  He and his wife, Inge, lived the American Dream in St. Paul, where they originally immigrated from Berlin. He told his story to groups at schools, churches, and organizations in the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Dakotas and earned three honorary doctorates from St. Olaf, South West State University and St. Cloud State University. He didn’t originally want to recount his story, but after one teacher persisted he relented, and continued – for forty years.

Oertelt was a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council’s (JCRC) Holocaust Education Commission, a recipient of JCRC’s “Volunteer of the Year” award, as well as recipient of the distinguished “Eleven Who Care” honor from KARE 11-TV in Minnesota. On April 23, 2006, St. Paul, Minnesota, honored him with the key to the city and proclaimed “Henry A. Oertelt Day.”

Additionally his story is one of only five highlighted on USC Shoah Foundations’ Surviving Auschwitz on line exhibit.

His family is asking that in lieu of flowers you donate to his local temple, Congregation Beth Jacob or Six Million for Six Million, (via my synagogue’s Congregation Eitz Chaim’s Holocaust Education fund for our film) to help make the movie about his life story.

I am forever grateful that I got to know Henry and his family and I am honored to carry on his mission of Holocaust Education and teaching acceptance and hope, for the rest of my life.

Joined Channel 12 News Street Side Studio Kick Off

12 Jan

We made a sign for Henry’s 90th birthday tomorrow and went down to Arizona Channel 12′s new Street Side Studios this morning. You can see me off to the right.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.