March 7, 2000
FILMS ON WOMEN RESCUERS DURING WORLD WAR II TO SCREEN AT UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Producer and Director to Attend
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents Women of Courage, a special film series on women rescuers during the Holocaust, on Sunday, March 12, from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. The films’ producer and director Peter Morley will lead discussions after the second and last screenings. Admission is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. It is possible to attend individual screenings. To reserve seating, call tickets.com at (800) 400-9373. Tickets.com service fees apply.
The four films feature women from Germany, Norway, Poland, and England who resisted Nazi tyranny through their heroic acts. The films include:
10:00-11:00 a.m. - It Mattered to Me (52 minutes), the story of a 17-year-old German who posed as a Nazi spy and censor to rescue hundreds of Scandinavian prisoners;
11:00-12:00 p.m. - A Hard Press on the Bell (52 minutes), which chronicles a Norwegian’s efforts to save 37 Jewish children by leading them through dense forests and across frozen lakes to safety in neutral Sweden;
12:00-1:00 p.m. - Question-and-answer session with Peter Morley;
2:00-3:00 p.m. - Twins Were Born in Paviak (54 minutes), about a young Polish partisan who secretly parachutes into Nazi-occupied Warsaw, is captured and sentenced to death, but survives and gives birth to twins in Warsaw’s notorious Paviak prison;
3:00-4:00 p.m. - My Number Wasn’t Up (54 minutes), the story of a British woman who helped refugees and downed Allied airmen escape occupied France and was shot while trying to evade capture. She was imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and survived the war;
4:00-5:00 - Question-and-answer session with Peter Morley.
“These four films gave me a clearer insight into what it must have been like to act on one’s own, to face danger on one’s own,” said director Peter Morley, who had served in the British army during World War II. Mr. Morley now lives in London, England, and is a well-known producer and director of documentary films.
A unique public-private partnership, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has welcomed more than 13.5 million visitors since it opened in April 1993. This May, it will mark two decades of its founders’ visionary leadership with the opening of its newest exhibition, Flight and Rescue, the national Days of Remembrance ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, and an evening honoring the work of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and its successor, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
For more information regarding the film series, or to arrange an interview with director Peter Morley, please contact the Media Relations Department at the Holocaust Memorial Museum: Andy Hollinger at (202) 488-6133 or ahollinger@ushmm.org.
