In the documentary filmUnBroken, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor embarks on an international quest to uncover answers about the plight of her mother and her six siblings who, as mere children, escaped Nazi Germany relying solely on their own youthful bravado and the kindness of German strangers.

UnBroken chronicles the seven Weber siblings who evaded certain capture and death, and ultimately escaped Nazi Germany following their mother’s incarceration and murder at Auschwitz. After being hidden in a laundry hut by a benevolent farmer, the children spent two years on their own in war-torn Germany. Emboldened by their father’s mandate that they ‘always stay together,’ the children used their own cunning and instincts to fight through hunger, loneliness, and fear, and survive bombings and attacks. Their journey culminates with a painful ultimatum, when, separated from their father, they are told that they must declare themselves orphans in order to escape to a new life in America. Unbeknownst to them, this salvation would become what would finally tear them apart, not to be reunited for another 40 years.

After the screening, join us for a panel discussion with the film’s director, producer, and writer Beth Lane and subject (Beth’s mother) Ginger Lane.

View the trailer here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor for International Holocaust Remembrance Day programming.

Presented with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme

Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory and film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

This screening is made possible by The Weber Family Arts Foundation.