{"id":31959,"date":"2016-09-09T07:56:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T13:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=31959"},"modified":"2016-09-09T08:46:06","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T14:46:06","slug":"new-ken-burns-film-spotlights-little-known-holocaust-rescuers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/new-ken-burns-film-spotlights-little-known-holocaust-rescuers\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ken Burns film spotlights little-known Holocaust rescuers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By BEN SALES<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>(JTA) &#8212; In 1940, as he was being transported to safety in the lower deck of a ship, the Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger asked Waitstill Sharp why the American Unitarian minister had bothered to rescue\u00a0him from the Nazis.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31976\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31976\" class=\"wp-image-31976 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"M and W Sharp\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp-1024x731.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/214;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31976\" class=\"wp-image-31976 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"M and W Sharp\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/M-and-W-Sharp-1024x731.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-31976\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martha and Watistill Sharp departing New York Harbor for Prague in 1939. (Courtesy of Sharp Family Archives)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sharp and his wife, Martha, had spent much of the previous two years smuggling Jews out of Nazi-controlled territory. Saving people from persecution, the clergyman had told Feuchtwanger, was what any able person should do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think something frightful, in addition to what has befallen Europe, is going to befall now,\u201d Sharp later recalled saying. \u201cI\u2019m not a saint. I\u2019m just as capable of the sins of human nature as anyone else. But I believe that the will of God is to be interpreted by the liberty of the human spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an intimate moment in \u201cDefying the Nazis: The Sharps\u2019 War,\u201d a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defyingthenazis.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">documentary<\/a> co-directed by the renowned filmmaker Ken Burns that takes a highly personal look at the American Christian couple who left a quiet life in New England, traveled to Nazi-occupied Europe and smuggled hundreds of Jews to safety.<\/p>\n<p>The movie, which relies on written recollections of the Sharps (Waitstill is voiced by Tom Hanks), archival footage, and interviews with survivors and historians, premieres Sept. 20 on PBS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefying the Nazis\u201d is a change of pace for Burns, a director best known for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0122741\/\" target=\"_blank\">sweeping documentaries<\/a> on broad topics \u2014 see: &#8220;Civil War,&#8221; &#8220;Jazz&#8221; or &#8220;Baseball.&#8221;\u00a0But when confronting the Holocaust\u2019s enormity, Burns said the best approach was to focus\u00a0on narrow, resonant stories like that of the Sharps rather than statistics that can mask the pain of mass atrocity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe number 6 million has become rather opaque,\u201d Burns told JTA by phone from his office in New Hampshire. \u201cWe just say it, and it lacks dimension and specificity. Here you have a story of two people who saved a few hundred people on the edges of that Holocaust.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However,\u00a0the\u00a0final frame of \u201cDefying the Nazis\u201d dedicates the film to all the Holocaust victims who were not saved.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the finale does anything, it reminds us that those 6 million are an amputated limb whose lives we still miss, and who ought to itch and bother us as long as we are human beings,&#8221; Burns said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31978\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31978\" class=\"wp-image-31978 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JULY 28:  Co-director\/executive producer Ken Burns speaks onstage during the 'Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War' panel discussion at the PBS portion of the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 28, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.  (Photo by Frederick M. Brown\/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31978\" class=\"wp-image-31978 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JULY 28:  Co-director\/executive producer Ken Burns speaks onstage during the 'Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War' panel discussion at the PBS portion of the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 28, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.  (Photo by Frederick M. Brown\/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ken-burns-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-31978\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ken Burns speaking during a &#8220;Defying the Nazis: The Sharps&#8217; War&#8221; panel discussion at the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel, July 28, 2016. (Frederick M. Brown\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The film traces the story of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yadvashem.org\/yv\/en\/righteous\/stories\/sharp.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Sharps<\/a>, who were living in Wellesley, Massachusetts, when the American Unitarian Association asked them to travel to Czechoslovakia in 1939 and France in 1940 to help people persecuted by the Nazis. The couple provided relief to embattled groups, raised money for refugee aid and smuggled Nazi targets, including children, out of the country. They are two of the five Americans who have been inducted\u00a0by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, as Righteous Among the Nations.<\/p>\n<p>Burns became connected to the film through his co-director, Artemis Joukowsky, the Sharps\u2019 grandson and a fellow alumnus of Hampshire College. Joukowsky first showed the film to Burns five years ago, and Burns steadily became more involved, beginning as an informal adviser and ending as a co-director.<\/p>\n<p>Burns compared his evolving role in the film to dialing up the heat slowly on a frog in a saucepan. \u201cBut this is a good kind of boil,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just firing on all cylinders,\u201d he said of the movie. \u201cYou have a comfortable middle-class Unitarian minister and his wife [who] live in Wellesley, Mass. The most dramatic thing that happens is what he says on Sunday. They leave their small children behind, go to Prague on the eve of World War II. She\u2019s dodging various Gestapo agents at night; he\u2019s going to European capitals to launder money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the film, much of the Sharps\u2019 story is told through the memories of the now-adult children the couple rescued. Burns said the childhood memories created the personal recollection necessary to capture the narrative&#8217;s\u00a0emotional atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChildren make unusually accurate witnesses,\u201d he said. \u201cYou really remember when your parents are happy, and you really, really remember when your parents are anxious and sad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The movie adds another personal touch as it turns away from the Sharps\u2019 rescue work and documents the rising tensions in the couple&#8217;s\u00a0marriage after they return to the States. It\u2019s bookended by an excerpt of a letter from Waitstill to Martha hoping to grow closer to her again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a fear of the messiness of this story,&#8221; Burns said, noting that he was undeterred. \u201cThe longing for the other sets in motion that this is about two people in a complicated relationship, as well as about the large topics that are involved here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burns said he isn&#8217;t done with Holocaust documentation. He\u2019s in the early stages of planning a movie about the U.S. role in preventing the Holocaust \u2014\u00a0a topic he says most people don\u2019t fully understand. And though his first allegiance in \u201cDefying the Nazis\u201d was to telling an accurate story, he hopes viewers come away with a drive to do more for today\u2019s refugees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are right now in a refugee crisis in the world that is dwarfed only by the Second World War,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a story, ultimately, about sacrifice and its costs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These people endangered their lives to save other human beings. They presumed everyone else would do it. What a wonderful presumption. It\u2019s not true, but I hope it does galvanize others.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"New%20Ken%20Burns%20film%20spotlights%20little-known%20Holocaust%20rescuers\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7139],"tags":[8079,8795,8078,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31979,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31959\/revisions\/31979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}