The movie, Ghosts of the Third Reich, was screened at Sewickley Academy and followed by a discussion led by Film Director Claudia Ehrlich Sobral and Dr. Samson Munn, the son of Holocaust survivors and the founder of The Austrian Encounter. The film concentrated on the stories of the descendants of both Holocaust perpetrators and survivors. The anguished guilt of the perpetrators’ descendants provided an unusual contrast to that of the Holocaust survivors.
The most striking component of the film was the focus on the feelings of guilt felt by descendants who were generations removed from their relatives’ heinous crimes. Those perspectives were some that I had never witnessed before and really piqued my interest, motivating me to further research after I went home. And I feel as though such perspective is underrepresented in media.
For me, the film helped to confirm that it is necessary to consider an incident from all perspectives, even one that may not be obvious at first.
by Meredith Sproull, Grade 10, Sewickley Academy