As we must remember, the Holocaust stands as one of the darkest chapters in human history, a genocide that saw millions of European Jews systematically murdered by Nazi Germany. Cinema has grappled with depicting this incomprehensible event in both documentary and narrative forms over the decades.  These works show the progression from prejudice and denial, to industrialized genocide, to the pursuit of justice and lifelong psychological damage and healing. The series explores how such an atrocity occurred, the resilience of the human spirit, and the imperative to ensuring "Never Again."

Each film will be introduced and will have a discussion session following the screening.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
Tuesday, September 17, 2024  7:00 PM
Introduced and discussed by Ann Leonard

We will begin in the years leading up to World War II with Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece, "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This drama depicts an extremely wealthy Jewish family in 1930’s Italy unable or unwilling to recognize the coming danger.  It can’t happen to them, but of course, it does.