Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

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

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.

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Categories Holocaust Education, News

Production Underway for Short Film Bashert Sponsored by Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

18 Jan

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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Categories An Unbroken Chain The Movie

Witnessing a miracle: Just another day in Survivor Ela Weissberger’s charmed life

15 Aug

We got to hear Holocaust Survivor, Ela Weissberger, speak Thursday night at the LA Museum of the Holocaust, where I’m a docent. She was an engaging speaker. Ela is one of the subjects of As Seen Through These Eyes, a film by Hilary Helstein, who also runs the LA Jewish Film Festival. As Maya Angelou narrates this powerful documentary, she reveals the story of a brave group of people who fought Hitler with the only weapons they had: charcoal, pencil stubs, shreds of paper and memories etched in their minds. These artists took their fate into their own hands to make a compelling statement about the human spirit, enduring against unimaginable odds. There are also other documentaries and features under way that are based on Ela’s unusual life story. Ela performed as “Cat” fifty-five times in Brundibar, the children’s opera in Theresenstadt, (or Terezin) ghetto in Czechoslavakia during the Holocaust. As a result, Ela was one of only 100 survivors out of 15,000 children at that camp.

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.

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Categories Holocaust Education, Holocaust Survivors, Uncategorized

Take a Tour at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

15 Jul

As you may know, I’m a new docent at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. I recently gave my first medium size public tour. I was pretty nervous, but I think it went well. I had between ten and fifteen people.

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!

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Categories Holocaust Education

LA Museum of the Holocaust Volunteer Appreciation Lunch

24 Jun

I was fortunate to be invited to have lunch with Holocaust Survivors, other docents and interns who volunteer for the LA Museum of the Holocaust yesterday. Even though I’ve only given one tour by myself, I too, got upgraded from a “volunteer” to a “docent” badge and I will be spending the summer giving informal tours. Come by on Thursday afternoons and say hello.

My sister asked me if it isn’t depressing to keep telling the story over and over. I told her about the warm, giving people I’ve met at the museum – especially the Holocaust Survivors, who continue to share their stories to honor their families and friends who were killed. For me, it is exciting to go to the museum and get to participate in helping educate students and visitors. The museum will inspire people to stand up for what’s right and speak up. Yesterday, someone told me they think there are more good people in the world than bad. I hope they are right.