In November 1940, days after the Nazis confined 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a clandestine band of journalists, scholars and community leaders decided to fight back, not with fists and guns but with printed words.
Led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum, the group was code named Oyneg Shabes and its members fought the Nazis with pen, paper and the truth. Their story is told in the feature-length documentary “Who Will Write Our History,” showing twice Sunday at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The film will also screen in theaters in 41 other countries around the globe that day. The Moscow showings will be followed by a panel discussion.
University of Idaho Professor Rachel Halverson first saw the documentary at the 2018 “Lessons and Legacies” conference organized by the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University.
“I was very taken by the film and the idea of a global screening event that would hold the memory of the victims of the Holocaust,” Halverson said.
Halverson knew she wanted the Palouse to be a part of the global event and contacted colleagues at UI and Washington State University to make it possible.
The film combines the writings of the Oyneg Shabes archive with new interviews, rarely seen footage and dramatizations of events that transpired in the ghetto. It was written, produced and directed by Roberta Grossman and executive produced by Nancy Spielberg.
Each showing of the 95-minute movie will be followed by a panel discussion with UI professor Janice Anderson, retired UI professor Alan Rose and WSU professors Michelle Mann and Raymond Sun.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Who Will Write Our History”
WHEN: 3:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27
WHERE: Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 S. Main St., Moscow
COST: Free
