Marking Holocaust Remembrance Day with a personal film

Gail Becker didn’t plan to make a film for public release about her 2007 family visit to Auschwitz. Her 83-year old father had been imprisoned there as a boy, and forced to work in the crematorium. media executive based in Los Angeles, hired a camera crew to document the emotional experience–so that one day, Joshua could share the story with his family.

The Holocaust wasn’t just a historical event for the family. It was their personal history.

After the footage sat in a drawer for a few years, Gail and Joshua decided to turn it into something they could share beyond their private circle. The memory of their trip, they said, had changed their compassion for others.

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins tonight at sundown, we invited Gail and Joshua into the studio to talk about their short film. It will screen at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 30th, and Gail has been working to make it available to school groups as a teaching school. Click here to see the trailer.