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.

Steve Alderfer as Commander Arthur Fink

Hollywood, Calif. January 18, 2012—launch flix, a production and digital media company, is currently in post-production on a short film, Bashert (Meant to Be), from the award-winning book they optioned from Holocaust Survivor Henry Oertelt, An Unbroken Chain, My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust. The oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, is sponsoring the film.

Bashert details an important evening in Oertelt’s life after he immigrated to Minnesota from Berlin when he met the American commander whose military unit liberated his concentration camp when Henry was on a three-day death march outside Flossenburg, Germany. This exchange is documented in Oertelt’s life story. Oertelt’s granddaughter, Dr. Corey Samuels, is an associate producer on the film.

Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Visual History Foundation made Henry’s life story one of five selected survivor testimonials featured on their Web exhibit from among over 55,000 collected stories in 2005.

launch flix CEO, Stephanie Houser, worked with many people to make this production a reality. Among them was her friend—and writing and producing producing partner—Pamela Lynn Sullivan, who was instrumental in making this project a reality. Additionally, Pam’s nine-year-old daughter, Caroline Sullivan, will make her acting debut, starring as Stephanie “Steffi” Oertelt in the short.

Houser has been a volunteer docent at Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust since the museum opened their new location in October 2010. The museum is celebrating their fifty-first anniversary this year according to Mark Rothman, Executive Director of the museum.

“We are excited to follow the film’s progress as it gets entered to film festivals,” said Mark Rothman. “We look forward to eventually hosting the film in our museum’s screening room,” he said.

launch flix is partnering with the museum in order for people to be able to make tax-deductible donations for the film project. To make a donation, visit http://www.lamoth.org/support-the-museum/ and click on the blue button on the right that says “Donate Now.” Then choose “Bashert: A Short Film” in the drop down menu for the designation option half way down the page.

Born in Berlin Germany of Jewish faith, Heinz (Henry) Oertelt was twelve years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. Oertelt died earlier this year at age ninety on January 27, the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the anniversary of the day Auschwitz was liberated. One year later, January 27, 2012, Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is hosting an elaborate community event called the “Mapping Auschwitz Project.”

Henry Oertelt was liberated by General Patton’s Third Army during the Flossenburg Death March in April 1943. He arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1949 and spent 40 years speaking about his experiences and the importance of tolerance, political involvement and confronting hatred. Oertelt was past chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council and Holocaust education committee. He was recipient of the JCRC’s “Volunteer of the Year” award, as well as the distinguished “Eleven Who Care” honor from KARE 11 TV in Minnesota in May 2006. Additionally, the city of St. Paul, Minnesota proclaimed “Henry A. Oertelt Day” on April 23, 2006.

Henry’s half brother, ninety-seven-year-old Maine resident Kurt Messerschmidt, is currently featured in the first chapter of a new teacher’s curriculum called Echoes and Reflections recently put out by the Anti Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation and Yad VaShem. You can learn more about the brothers and their story at http://6mfor6m.org.

launch flix is currently fundraising and developing a feature film with a $6 million budget based on the life story of Holocaust survivor and author Henry A. Oertelt. The filmmakers have created a grassroots campaign called $6M for 6M. The goal is to reach six million people willing to donate at least one dollar each, share Henry’s story of confronting hatred and raise awareness for Holocaust education. Tax-deductible donations are currently being accepted.

About the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMH) has a two-fold mission that has remained constant since its inception in 1961: commemoration and education. http://www.lamoth.org/.

About launch flix
launch flix is an award-winning production company in Los Angeles. launch flix creates and produces original content films, shorts and Web videos that inform, entertain and educate diverse audiences. They focus on “green” production, internet marketing and profitability to give partners the highest return on their investment. For more information on launch flix, the short film Bashert or the movie, An Unbroken Chain, visit www.launchflix.com.

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Thank you so much to Craig Michelson, the curator of the American Heritage Park Military Museum! He’s giving us a screaming deal for an M8 Armored car, an Army Jeep, a genuine German rifle, a US military uniform and even K rations!
We couldn’t shoot our short film without the support of menches like Craig. Visit the museum located in South El Monte. You can visit their web site for hours and pricing.

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

Launch flix, CEO, Stephanie Houser has been a volunteer docent since the museum opened their new location in October, 2010. This year the museum is celebrating their fiftieth anniversary.

“We couldn’t think of a better way to end the year. What made this especially attractive was that we could help an important project move forward while working with Stephanie, who has distinguished herself through her volunteer work with us,” said Mark Rothman, Executive Director of the museum. “It was an easy yes.”

Bashert, which means “meant to be” in Yiddish, is about a story that happened after Henry Oertelt immigrated to Minnesota from Berlin. In the 1950’s he attended a party where he met an American soldier who had been in the exact place, at the same time of his liberation from a three-day death march. This exchange is documented in Oertelt’s life story.

Oertelt’s award-winning book is called An Unbroken Chain, My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust. Born in Berlin Germany, of Jewish faith, Heinz (Henry) Oertelt was twelve years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. Oertelt died earlier this year at age ninety on January 27, the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, and the anniversary of the day Auschwitz was liberated. One year later, January 27, 2012, the museum is also planning an elaborate community event called the “Mapping Auschwitz Project.”

Launch flix is partnering with the museum so people can make tax-deductible donations for the film project. Visit http://www.lamoth.org/support-the-museum/ and click on the blue button the right that says “Donate Now.” Then choose “Bashert: A Short Film by Stephanie Houser” in the drop down menu for the “Designation” option half way down the page.

Henry Oertelt was liberated by General Patton’s Third Army during the Flossenburg Death March in April, 1943. He arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1949 and spent 40 years speaking about his experiences and the importance of tolerance, political involvement, and confronting hatred. Oertelt was past chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council and Holocaust education committee. He was recipient of the JCRC’s “Volunteer of the Year” award, as well as the distinguished “Eleven Who Care” honor from KARE 11 TV in Minnesota in May, 2006. Additionally, the city of St. Paul, Minnesota proclaimed “Henry A. Oertelt Day” on April 23, 2006. Oertelt participated in Stephen Spielberg’s University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education in Los Angeles, California. In 2005 Stephen Spielberg’s Shoah Visual History Foundation made Henry’s story one of five selected survivor testimonials featured on their Web exhibit from among over 55,000 collected stories.

Additionally, Henry’s half brother, ninety-six year old Maine resident, Kurt Messerschmidt, is currently featured in the first chapter of a new teacher’s curriculum called Echoes and Reflections that was recently put out by the Anti Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation and Yad VaShem. You can learn more about the brothers and their story at http://6mfor6m.org

Launch flix has been fundraising and developing a feature film with a $6 million total budget based on the life story of Holocaust survivor and author Henry A. Oertelt. Since they were raising $6 million dollars, the filmmakers created a grassroots campaign called $6M for 6M. The concept was that even if they received a dollar per person, they could reach six million people with their story and raise awareness for Holocaust education at the same time.

About the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMH) has a two-fold mission that has remained constant since its inception in 1961: commemoration and education. http://www.lamoth.org/

About launch flix
launch flix is an award-winning production company in Los Angeles. Launch flix creates and produces original content like films, shorts, and Web videos that inform, entertain and educate diverse audiences. They focus on “green” production, Internet marketing, and profitability to give partners the highest return on their investment. For more information on launch flix or the movie, An Unbroken Chain, visit http://launchflix.com.

(beh-sheert) destined, fated, meant to be.

The short is based on a true story that happened to my friend, Holocaust Survivor, Henry Oertelt, a few years after he immigrated to Minnesota. Henry’s granddaughter, Dr. Corey Samuels, is acting as associate producer on this production and she will actually be present at our casting sessions this weekend.

The log line is… a German immigrant is questioned during a cocktail party in Minnesota regarding his whereabouts during World War II…and discovers that the world can be a very small place.

In the early 1950’s, Henry found work at a furniture store. Both Henry and his new wife, Inge were learning English and studying to be citizens of the United States. They were extremely grateful to have made it to the United States, and in fact, they never left St. Paul. They saved up enough money for a car and eventually had their own house.

Henry, like many Survivors, originally never wanted to talk about his experiences in Germany during the Holocaust. However, he and Inge attended a party where Arnold Fink, one of the guests was very nosy and kept pestering him with questions. Henry tried to dodge him but he was very persistent. Finally, Arthur extracted the information he’s looking for– the time and place of Henry’s liberation. They discover that both of them were there at the exact same time!

Our goal is to finish the short by year’s end so that we can enter into into film festivals in 2012. This short is meant to raise awareness for our larger feature film project called An Unbroken Chain.

We hope that this film will help raise visibility and financial support for Henry’s life story. Not only did he talk to Arnold about what happened to him during the war, but eventually he spoke to schools, churches and other organizations. Henry told his story for almost forty years and received numerous awards, honorary doctorates and even the key to the city! He and his daughter Steffi also wrote a book called An Unbroken Chain: My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust, which you can buy here. We’ve optioned the book and have already raised two million dollars towards the six million dollars needed to shoot it in Europe.

Sadly, Steffi passed away in May, 2010 after a long battle with brain cancer. Henry just died this year at age 90, but he had seen the script for the film and was very excited to have his story help teach many people the important lessons he shared.

If you are interested in participating in this production, please email casting (at) 6mfor6m dot org. We are still looking for some crew, as well as an editor, sound technician, and other positions.

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,

“Some of the people disapproved, but their disapproval was only silence…”

Then, the very first video they showed us at the training was Kurt talking about being in Berlin the morning of Kristallnacht and walking over seven miles of glass shards from the destruction. Incidentally the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht is November 9th-10th.

The ten multi-part lessons are provided with a companion DVD of over two-and-a-half hours of visual history testimony from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. Each of the interdisciplinary lessons is supported with numerous primary source documents, including poems, literature excerpts, maps, photographs, timelines, a glossary, and student handouts.

This is an amazing tool for teachers all over the world to use to teach the Holocaust. We were told that many students are interested in learning more about the Survivors who are highlighted in the curriculum and the Echoes and Reflections web site allows them to drill down to see more videos or even watch the entire testimonies – Kurt’s is several hours long, as is most Survivors. They can also participate in interactive lessons with some of the videos online.

We are disappointed that the organizations didn’t list Kurt’s brother’s biography, An Unbroken Chain: My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust, in the Appendices under General Holocaust Research, as obviously teachers would benefit from being able to recommend this related reading to their classes. We will reach out and let these organizations know how they can find copies of the book including an e-book from Lerner Publishing.

We are extremely encouraged by these prestigious institutions’ selection of Kurt’s story from over 52,000 video testimonies. We have coincidentally recently received a donation that will fund a short film that we will use to promote the feature film effort. Stay tuned on how you can get involved with the production in Los Angeles in the coming weeks and/or help spread the world as we take the short to film festivals in 2012.

Granddaughter Corey, Inge, Henry, and Stephanie, Producer

Last night, I got feedback about the short from the other writers. I had told them that my husband’s family had unexpectedly recently donated a little money to the project – enough for us to film the short on a tight budget. One of our friends, Shannon, a freelance producer, offered to help us with the project, so I gave her an autographed copy of the book on Friday. When I got home last night, she had texted me. Henry was freed on May 8, 2011 which is Shannon’s birthday. Unbelievable! The Unbroken Chain continues. I hope to share news about producing our short very soon here in LA. Drop me a line at steph (at) 6mfor6m dot org if you would like to join our cast or crew.

For my Jewish readers, Happy New Year! It’s the year 5772. L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu (לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִּכָּתֵבוּ) – This phrase is a customary greeting before the Jewish New Year and means “May you be inscribed for a good year (in the Book of Life)!”

Ela Reunites w/ Terezin Baby

The surprise of the evening was when one of the attendees asked Ela a question and indicated that she had been born in the camp. Ela responded that she only knew one pregnant woman, and said her name was Ishmar (sp?). The woman cried, “That’s my mother!” Ela looked dumbfounded as she realized that a baby of a family she knew during that terrible period had survived and made it to the U.S. Later she told us, these kind of coincidences happen to her all the time.

Yesterday, we attended the LA Opera Camp performance of Brundibar. Brundibar tells the story of a young brother and sister trying to buy milk for their sick mother. After witnessing an organ grinder earning money by making music in the town square, they decide to do the same thing but the greedy and unkind organ grinder drives them away. Ela told us that the mustache-sporting organ grinder was representative of Hitler. She said all the kids knew what the opera was really about and wasn’t sure why the Nazis allowed them to continue performing it, but they did. The Nazis filmed the performance as part of the propaganda films they were shooting to deceive the Red Cross as well as the rest of the world.

Brundibar performed by the LA Opera Camp

At the end of yesterday’s performance, Ela, who is one of only 2 remaining original cast members, got on stage and spoke to the audience and then sang along to the final song with the cast of local children.

I called my friend Henry Oertelt’s older brother, ninety-six year old Kurt Messerschmidt today, to ask if he had seen the children’s opera while he was at the camp and related the story of Ela’s reunion with Ishmar’s baby. He said that it was a miracle that the baby survived the conditions of being born into the camp. He had heard of it, but never seen Brundibar. He wished me well with our An Unbroken Chain film project and told me he was enjoying his summer. We were both sad as we remembered Henry, who died only this January at age ninety. Big Brother Kurt felt Henry should have cut back on his speaking sooner so that he might have had more energy and possibly lived longer. I don’t know, though. I think some of the Survivors who speak at the museum have more energy than anyone I know. Eighty-one year old Ela is a great example of that high energy. We were even told that she still loves to go dancing into the wee hours.

A student named Rachel Weronika shared this video of her photos of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and uploads from the Internet. Song: “Fear” by OneRepublic.

The museum is divided into major sections and takes the visitor through the events in chronological order:
The World that Was
Rise to Nazism
The Beginning of the War and Ghettoization
Camps
Resistance
Liberation and Post War Issues including Holocaust and Music

It seems crazy to try to explain the Holocaust in less than an hour. I kept encouraging my group to return with our complementary audio guides so they could get more detailed information. No matter what I point out, afterwards I always feel I missed something important. However, after the tour, I also thought, wow, I really have picked up where my “adopted grandfather” and mentor, Holocaust Survivor, Henry Oertelt, left off. He taught the lessons of the Holocaust by sharing his life story with schools, groups and all kinds of organizations in the Minnesota area for about 40 years. I hope he would be pleased.

One question that caught me off guard was: Was Hitler’s grandmother really Jewish? The museum’s answer: there is no proof of that, it’s still just a rumor. I thought it might be interesting to start to share some of the questions and answers that come up in my tour from now on.

Our museum is the oldest Holocaust museum in the U.S., however, we just opened a new permanent building last October. Typically a Holocaust Survivor speaks every day around 11am. We are located right in Pan Pacific Park near the Grove. Plan a trip soon!