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Auschwitz Memories

Auschwitz Memories” was filmed during a journey, by a group of teachers and students of Stockton College Masters in Haulocaust and Genocide Studies Program to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau with their teacher, Rabbi Murray Kohn, a survivor of three years in Auschwitz.
As well as a physical journey, it is also a journey through Rabbi Kohn’s haunting memories of Auschwitz. The participants are visibly affected on an emotional level. Rabbi Kohn is a powerful figure who, like the ancient prophets of Israel, forces his students, and us, to try to do the impossible, and imagine ourselves in that place and contemplate the very difficult and ultimately unanswerable question, “How can human beings do these things to other human beings?” The music is appropriately mostly in Yiddish, and communicates without the need to understand the words.

  • Will Kahane
    Director
  • Dr. Herman Saatkamp
    Producer
  • Gail Stanger
    Producer
  • Dr Marcia Littell
    Producer
  • Stockton College Masters in Holocaust Studies Study tour
    Producer
  • Rabbi Murray Kohn Auschwitz survivor
    Key Cast
  • Nancy Kahane
    music vocals
  • Chava Alberstein
    music vocals
  • Will Kahane
    Cinematographer
  • Leon Sangster
    Cinematographer
  • Will Kahane
    editor
  • Bob Speirs
    editor
  • Nancy Kahane
    editor
  • Art Smith
    editor
  • Doug Wilson
    editor
  • Joe Talvaccia Orchard Studio
    recording studio engineer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    25 minutes 36 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Poland
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    digital mini DV tape
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Will Kahane

Will Kahane is married to Nancy and has five children and lives in Ventnor NJ. He graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick with a BA in English Literature, and an MA from Stockton College in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He attended film and television courses at NYU. He worked in TV production at WDCA TV in Washington. He attended the US Army Motion Picture Television Production School at Ft Monmouth, NJ and served as a Motion Picture TV Officer at the US Army Photo Agency in The Pentagon and also served in Vietnam. He was the campaign cinematographer for the Hubert Humphrey Presidential Primary Campaign against George McGovern and filmed the presidential primary campaign for candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He was Audio Visual Director of Jack Morton Productions in Washington DC. Producing films and multi-image shows for a variety of clients including the Bnai Brith Women, The National Federation of Republican Women, National Automobile Dealers, etc.. He received the Cine Eagle for his documentary film “Alfredo Halegua Sculptor” and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his cinematography on local news coverage in Wash DC. He has directed and produced the holocaust-related documentaries, “Auschwitz Memories”, “The Seventh House”, and “Lest We Forget”. He is currently affected with pancreatic cancer, for which there is no known cure.

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Director Statement

“Auschwitz Memories” follows Rabbi Dr Murray Kohn who teaches Holocaust history to students who are mostly NJ teachers in his class at Richard Stockton College in NJ. We follow him as he takes a group of these students through the camp where as a thirteen year old, he and his father were prisoners and slaves for three years and his family was murdered. We watch a man relive his nightmare existence in the camp. He speaks to us of his horrible experiences as did the ancient prophets of Israel. Yet, we know we can only see through a darkened glass. The haunting music sung by nancy Kahane is in Yiddish, since that was the language of the victims. Rabbi Kohn is haunted by the ghosts of this place with its “green trees, singing birds and sunny skies”