Violins of Hope: The Documentary (2024)

This documentary tells the story of the Violins of Hope exhibit. This collection of precious instruments, once played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, traveled here from Israel to be shared and celebrated. For seven weeks, over 50 regional arts organizations, educational institutions, service providers and faith-based groups joined in presenting programming around the exhibit.

The Letters: A Plea for Help (2023)

This short documentary tells the dramatic story of a family’s efforts to flee Nazi-occupied Austria with the help of Pittsburgh residents. From the Rauh Jewish Archives at Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center, a dozen letters document correspondence between Gertrude Deutsch Perles in Vienna and Abraham (Abe) Sanford Levy in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. With nearly half of Austria’s Jews seeking refuge in other countries, the Perles faced the nearly impossible task of finding a willing family to support them. This video was produced by WQED in conjunction with the PBS docuseries “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” a film by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick & Sarah Botstein.

The Holocaust: Reaching a New Generation (2023)

“America and the Holocaust” is a new approach to teaching the lessons learned from history, while reaching a younger, broader audience. Written by historian Barbara Burstin, who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, the “graphic booklet” focuses on the need to combat hate and bigotry. It also examines what the United States did – and didn’t do – for European Jews during the Holocaust. With illustrations by Fred Carlson, the story is told through two modern-day students reflecting on the 1930s and 1940s.

The Nuremberg Trials: Witness to History (2021)

Shortly after World War II, the Nuremberg Trials determined the fate of Nazis accused of horrendous atrocities in Europe. Ed Pherdehirt was a soldier in the U.S. Signal Corps and stationed in Germany at the end of the war. He was one of only a handful of people to witness the beginning months of this landmark period in world history when he was tasked with helping to monitor the translation equipment. Now 96 and living in suburban Pittsburgh, Mr. Pherdehirt shares his memories of the 1945 trial. University of Pittsburgh professor Dr. Barbara Burstin and Marquette University law professor Dr. Andrea Kupfer Schneider explore the trial’s significance and its effect on international law.

Unlikely Refuge: Surviving the Holocaust in Shanghai (2020)

As a follow-up to WQED’s PBS national documentary, “Harbor from the Holocaust,” this 30-minute local documentary examines the Pittsburgh connections to a little-known story of Jews who found refuge in Shanghai during the Holocaust. Segments include the stories of a Chinese diplomat who saved thousands of people by providing visas, a woman who taught scores of Jewish refugee children, and the remembrances of a Pittsburgh man born in the Shanghai ghetto.

Life After Hate (2020)

With the rise in white-supremacist violence, many are asking why young people are drawn into hate groups in the first place. Shannon Foley Martinez is a former neo-Nazi skinhead who was invited by Classrooms Without Borders to speak in Pittsburgh, to share what she learned about the roots of hatred. While in the city, Ms. Foley Martinez made an emotional stop at the site of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting.

The Hunger Lesson (2020)

Anne Frank is the most widely read diarist of the Holocaust. But students are also reading “The Diary of Anonymous Girl,” which describes a family’s devastating hunger during food rationing in Poland’s Lodz ghetto. With help from Classrooms Without Borders, Pittsburgh-area middle school students are learning first-hand what the well-worn phrase “I’m starving” meant for teens who actually lived that terror.

Stories of the Holocaust (2016)

Every year, there are fewer people alive to tell their stories. This program records the heartbreaking and sometimes heroic memories of Pittsburgh-area people who experienced the Holocaust. Among those who share their memories: Fritz Ottenheimer, who escaped Nazi Germany in 1939 and returned as an American soldier; Moshe Baran, a Jewish man who fought with the partisans against the Nazis; Sam Gottesman, who survived Auschwitz and other labor camps with his father, Isaak.

Tsipy Gur: Holocaust Educator (2014)

Dr. Zipora “Tsipy” Gur is the executive director of Classrooms Without Borders in Pittsburgh. The organization’s missions include combatting antisemitism, genocide and hate through transformative educational opportunities. Dr. Gur is well-known in the region for organizing thought-provoking trips for teachers so they become better equipped to translate their experiences into more vibrant school curriculum. Her journeys have included taking educators to Polish concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek and other historic locations. Originally broadcast as part of “Pittsburgh 360” on March 27, 2014.

The Nazi Olympics Exhibit in Pittsburgh (2012)

This feature story showcases The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936 exhibit when it was on display at the August Wilson Center in downtown Pittsburgh in 2012. The exhibit featured historic film, photographs and other artifacts. It was originally co-chaired by Pittsburgh Holocaust survivor Les Banos, who attended the games as a child, but died before the exhibit’s completion. Also featured in the story is Pittsburgh Steelers legend Franco Harris, who served as a co-chair, and Sala Udin, interim chair of the August Wilson Center. Originally broadcast as part of “Horizons” on November 13, 2012.

Light: Holocaust Ballet performed in Pittsburgh (2009)

This report showcases “Light” a ballet based in part on the experiences of Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren. The ballet was created in Austin, Texas. The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre was the first company to perform “Light” outside of Austin. Featured in the story are Pittsburgh Holocaust survivor Sam Weinreb, Edie Naveh of the UJF Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, and Stephen Mills, artistic director of Ballet Austin. Originally broadcast as part of “OnQ Magazine” on November 5, 2009.

Deadly Medicine: A Holocaust Exhibit in Pittsburgh (2007)

This WQED feature story explores a stark, troubling exhibit that was on display at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh from December 17, 2006, through March 18, 2007. “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” focused on the Nazi regime’s genocide of millions of Jews and other minorities through so-called “racial hygiene.” The exhibit portrays a radicalized form of eugenics and its pivotal role in the racist ideology the Holocaust was built upon. Originally broadcast as part of “OnQ Magazine” on March 5, 2007.

Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals: An Exhibit in Pittsburgh (2007)

“The Holocaust was not just a Jewish event,” says Edie Naveh, director of the Holocaust Center of the UJF Pittsburgh. “It was a human event.” This feature story focuses on a traveling exhibit exploring the persecution of gay men by the Nazi regime under Paragraph 175, a provision of the German Criminal Code which made homosexual acts among men a crime. The exhibit passed through Pittsburgh in 2007. Also featured in the video are Ted Phillips, curator from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC and Pittsburgh businessman Nachum Golan. Originally broadcast as part of “OnQ Magazine” on December 13, 2007.

Surviving Mengele | Pittsburgh woman recalls Holocaust atrocities (2007)

Esther Haas of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood survived not only the Auschwitz concentration camp, but also the monstrous medical experiments of Josef Mengele, a German SS officer and physician, also known as the Angel of Death. Mrs. Haas was chosen by Mengele with a group of other young women for gynecological experiments. She recalls her encounters with Mengele, including several times she came dangerously close to being sent to the gas chamber, and how she helped boost the spirits of other prisoners. Originally broadcast as part of “OnQ Magazine” on March 5, 2007.

Les Banos: World War II Spy During the Holocaust (2007)

As part of its video series preserving World War II stories, in 2007 WQED interviewed Les Banos of the Penn Hills suburb of Pittsburgh. Mr. Banos was a part of the Hungarian resistance against Hitler’s forces. Employed at a German factory where tanks and other war machinery was being made, he provided daily reports to the resistance. He also helped hide people fearing Nazi persecution. Later stationed in Budapest as part of the German army, Mr. Banos leaked troop movement information and falsified paperwork that prevented or delayed deportation of people to concentration camps.

From Pittsburgh to Poland: Lessons from the Holocaust (2005)

This one-hour documentary chronicles a journey by Holocaust survivors and educators from Pittsburgh to Poland where they took part in the March of the Living. This international program brings together thousands of people on Holocaust Remembrance Day, where they march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, former Nazi work and death camps. The documentary focuses on the personal stories of the Pittsburgh Holocaust survivors – and shows how Pittsburgh teachers will use the experience in their curriculums for years to come.

Cantor Moshe Taube: Surviving the Holocaust on Schindler’s List (2005)

This short documentary tells the story of Cantor Moshe Taube of Pittsburgh, listed as number 24 on what is now known as “Schindler’s List.” Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist who saved approximately 1200 Jews from the Nazis by employing them in his factories. Schindler’s story was immortalized in a 1993 film by Steven Spielberg. A long-time cantor at Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh, Taube shared his story with WQED in 2005 in advance of a trip to Poland with other Holocaust survivors and local teachers. Cantor Taube recounts how he and his father were saved, while his mother and sister perished at the Belzec concentration camp. The video also features the cantor’s visit to St. Joseph Catholic School in Port Vue, Pennsylvania, where he spoke with teacher Sally Gooch’s students about his experiences.

The Holocaust: A Lesson Plan in Pittsburgh (2005)

This feature story takes viewers to CAPA, the Creative and Performing Arts magnet school in Downtown Pittsburgh, where students are learning the history of the Holocaust from a very human perspective. Teacher Melissa Pearlman felt her class would get a better understanding through personal journals, then relating to the rest of the class the story of the Holocaust victim or survivor they had studied. Originally broadcast as part of “OnQ magazine” on May 4, 2005.

The Holocaust Garden (2004)

Marga Silbermann Randall is a Holocaust survivor from suburban Pittsburgh who helped create a memorial garden at Temple Emanuel in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It is in memory of family members and millions of others who did not survive the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Also featured in the story is garden designer Lynn Rubin, who explains why specific plants were chosen. Produced and reported by Doug Oster. Originally broadcast as part of “OnQ Magazine” on November 22, 2004.