Never Forget: What We Carry project

“Evil does not need your help, just your indifference.” Hanns Loewenbach, survivor

The East Coast premiere of “What We Carry,” a documentary featuring the stories of four Hampton Roads Holocaust survivors, will be held at 3 p.m., Sunday March 25, at the Tidewater Community College Roper Performing Arts Center.

The 63-minute film boldly documents four survivors’ unique stories through a riveting format that creates an immediate emotional intimacy, so that truth can live on, questions can be asked, and history cannot be rewritten.

Produced by award-winning filmmakers Janice Engel and Amber Howell, “What We Carry” combines interviews with still photos, archival footage and music created specifically for the film.

The documentary was developed for the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s innovative project by the same name.

“Time was of the essence in creating this documentary,” said Elena Barr Baum, Holocaust Commission director. “The poignant reality is that Holocaust survivors are getting older, and no one lives forever. Their experiences and stories are so important that we wanted to find a way to preserve and share them. This meaningful project does that remarkably well.”

Two of the four survivors featured in the documentary, David Katz and Hanns Loewenbach, died in January. The other two, Dana Cohen and Kitty Saks, plan to attend the premiere.

To find out more about the What We Carry project, visit http://jewishva.org/holocaust-what-we-carry.

Even though the inital screening has past, interested parties can still contact the What We Carry project and arrange viewings for groups. 

Never Forget becomes more critical and more time vital the older the Holocaust survivors get.  In the fairly near future, there will not be any first hand witnesses left.  But once there are no survivors left, who does the mission fall to?   It will become more important than ever for the post Holocaust generations retell the  stories of survivors  and the stories of lives lost and make absolutely certain no one forgets.  They must make certain their children know and understand what happened.  They must make sure we all know.  Forgetting is not an option.  

 Indifference can be more dangerous than evil.