Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses
Heroic World War II veterans vividly share their liberation journeys, drawing parallels between the past and present.
These powerful eyewitness accounts from Steven Spielberg's USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive®, share a cautionary tale and compelling reminder of what can happen when insidious hatred remains unchecked.
With antisemitism, racism and xenophobia on the rise worldwide, this film serves as a call to action to stand against hatred in all its forms.
As Alan Moskin, a featured Liberator in the film, says to a group of young cadets, "The hate is still out there...It's up to your generation to change that."
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Vanessa RothDirectorDaughters of Destiny, Freeheld, The Girl and The Picture
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June BeallorProducerThe Last Days; Survivors of the Holocaust; The Lost Children of Berlin; Voices From The List
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Andy FriendlyProducerThe Tomorrow Show; Entertainment Tonight; Inside Edition; American Journal
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Mickey ShapiroExecutive ProducerMy Name Is Sara
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Ceci ChanExecutive ProducerThe Girl and The Picture
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Stephen D. SmithExecutive ProducerOne Day in Auschwitz; Destination Unknown; Auschwitz; Lala; The Last Goodbye; The Girl and The Picture
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Andi GitowExecutive ProducerDateline NBC: The Long Way Home; 21st Century: Cambodia – A Quest for Justice; Worlds Apart; Living Dangerously
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Alan MoskinKey Cast"Featured WWII Liberator"
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Virgil WestdaleKey Cast"Featured Liberation Witness"
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Aldean MasonKey Cast"Featured Liberation Witness & Nurse"
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Leon BassKey Cast"Featured WWII Liberator"
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Peter ZachwiejaEditor
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Michael BerenbaumChief Historian
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Jackson GreenbergMusic
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Jesi NelsonMusic
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Susan M. BakerAssociate Producer
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Bonnie SamotinAssociate Producer
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Pamela RIkkersHead of Archival Research
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Katie TraurigLead Assistant Editor
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Elyse KatzProduction Manager
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Sandy GervayProduction Coordinator
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Benjamin TalismanProduction Associate
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Stephen FeuerbornTitles & Graphic Design
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Cinema ColletFestival Strategist
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Genres:Documentary, war, history
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Runtime:42 minutes
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Completion Date:April 19, 2019
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Country of Origin:United States
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Language:English
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Student Project:No
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GI Film Festival San DiegoSan Diego, CA
United States
March 18, 2021
Winner for Best Documentary Short -
Irvine International Film FestivalIrvine, CA
United States
May 7, 2021
Winner Documentary Short & Trailer -
The Thomas Edison Black Maria Film FestivalHoboken, NJ
United States
February 5, 2021
Global Insights Stellar Award 2021 -
Social Justice Film FestivalSeattle, WA
United States
October 1, 2020
Winner Featurette Documentary Gold Prize -
Chagrin Documentary Film FestivalChagrin Falls, OH
United States
October 6, 2020
Human Spirit Documentary Award -
Sedona International Film FestivalSedona, AZ
United States
February 23, 2020
Audience Choice Award for Best Short Documentary -
Normandia-World War II International Film FestivalKingston, RI
United States
June 5, 2020
Outstanding Documentary Film Award -
Impact DOCS AwardsLa Jolla, CA
United States
January 28, 2020
Best of Show Documentary Feature -
Flickers' Rhode Island International Film FestivalProvidence
United States
August 4, 2020
Semi-Finalist, Documentary Feature -
American Documentary and Animation Film FestivalPalm Springs, CA
United States
September 25, 2020
Official Selection -
Big Muddy Film FestivalCarbondale, IL
United States
March 17, 2021
Official Selection -
Breckenridge Film FestivalBreckenridge, CO
United States
September 20, 2020
Official Selection -
Cleveland International Film FestivalCleveland, OH
United States
March 26, 2020
Official Selection -
DOCUTAH International Documentary Film FestivalSt. George, UT
United States
November 2, 2020
Official Selection -
Global Peace Film FestivalWinter Park, FL
United States
September 21, 2020
Official Selection -
Jewish Film Festival of Fairfield CountyStamford, CT
United States
January 24, 2021
Official Selection -
Julien Dubuque International Film FestivalDubuque, IA
United States
February 18, 2021
Official Selection -
New Jersey Jewish Film FestivalWest Orange, NJ
United States
February 28, 2021
Official Selection -
Oxford Film FestivalOxford, MS
United States
March 24, 2021
Official Selection -
San Diego International Jewish Film FestivalSan Diego, CA
United States
February 10, 2021
Official Selection
Distribution Information
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Discovery ChannelCountry: Worldwide
Vanessa is an Oscar, Emmy, DuPont-Columbia and Sundance award winning non-fiction filmmaker with over 25 years of making documentary features, series and shorts. Among her many films, she is the Executive Producer, Writer and Director of the Emmy Honors Award Winning Netflix Original Documentary series, Daughters of Destiny and Academy Award winning filmmaker for Freeheld (HBO).
She is currently Directing the Untitled Mary J Blige premium documentary as an Amazon Original as well as Executive Producing and Directing the IMPACT series and feature film for National Geographic with “Wonder Woman” Gal Gadot.
Her films made around the world have garnered dozens of awards including the Oscar, The Television Academy Emmy Award for Social Impact, Sundance Prizes, Cine Golden Eagles, Casey Medals, Impact Doc Awards for Best in Show and Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking, IDA nominations, Audience Awards and Jury Prizes at festivals around the world, as well as top honors for work in social impact, social justice, witness to history, youth empowerment and women’s rights around the world. Her 2019 film, Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses, in association with USC Shoah Foundation for Discovery Channel most recently received the 2020 Human Spirit Documentary Award from the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. Liberation Heroes has also been the Official Selection and received several awards at numerous other festivals nationwide.
Her work has been made in partnership, broadcast and streamed by Netflix, Amazon, Discovery, PBS, HBO, Discovery, A&E, ESPN, Nat Geo and the BBC and theatrically released and featured in museums, memorial halls, public art exhibitions, and for education; her films have screened at Obama's Youth Presidential Inauguration events, Obama White House, for Congress, the United Nations and UNESCO. Her projects have been featured on NBC Education Nation, Oprah, NPR, and at international memorial events, education, child welfare, and social justice storytelling summits.
With outreach a core mission of all her work she creates projects and programs that use her films as tools to engagement and education and is a frequent Thought Partner and Key Note speaker for universities, organizations and foundations focused on youth empowerment, ethics, legacy, memory, history and storytelling.
Before making films Vanessa was a Child Advocate in New York and California family and juvenile courts and schools and worked with the Sex Crimes Unit of the LAPD in her work with the Stuart House/Rape Treatment Center. She received a BA in Creative Writing and Psychology from UCLA and holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and minor in family law from Columbia University.
In 1994, my mom told me about a project she was involved in that was the brainchild of Steven Spielberg. He wanted to record testimony of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust from around the world. My mom was one of the first interviewers to do her small part in recording these historic voices that share the horrifying truth of what hate breeds. After each of the interviews she did, she told me their stories - men and women who had lost everything when they were just young people themselves - and somehow survived. I never forgot those stories and was driven by them to do work in my life that would document and give voice to people who might otherwise be forgotten.
Twenty-five years later, I was approached by the film's Producer and USC Shoah Foundation Founding Executive Director June Beallor and current Finci-Viterbi USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen D. Smith along with Producer Andy Friendly who serves on the Board of Councilors of the organization, to make a film with them on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Shoah Foundation. The film we made focuses on a segment of this collection - the stories of those who liberated and witnessed the liberation of the concentration camps.
These were young men and women - teenagers really, 18 and 19-year-olds - who went into WWII as soldiers, nurses, photographers, journalists and pilots. Diverse in race, religion, geography and gender, they boarded ships off the coast of NYC and landed in places in Europe they had never heard of before. They had little life experience and no preparation or knowledge of what they would witness in the spring of 1944 when they came upon the concentration camps and liberated the people inside.
I met Aldean, Virgil, and Alan – now in their 90s and 100s, who were among these young people in the 1940s and who never stopped telling their stories of the Holocaust. With their voices central to our film and the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive® we assembled the first-hand accounts of what it was like to be there, to remind those who remember the war, and to teach the young people today, who know very little of that era, of the atrocities of which humans are capable.
Through their memories, the news at the time and the personal photo collections of their lives, our goal was to amplify their life stories and heed their warnings. As Alan Moskin, a featured Liberator in the film, says to a group of young cadets, "The hate is still out there...It's up to your generation to change that."