Survivor who couldn’t tell of experiences for 50 years features in new film

A Holocaust charity is premiering its debut documentary featuring a survivor who couldn’t speak about her experiences for 50 years.

Out of the Darkness, released by Holocaust Learning UK, is based around the compelling testimony of Janine Webber. Now 88, Janine was only nine when the Germans invaded her Polish city in 1941. Her family was forced to hide from the Nazis in a hole beneath a wardrobe. Her mother, father and brother were killed but her aunt and uncle survived. At the end of the war, Janine was placed in a children’s home in Poland before moving to England in 1956.

The charity, previously known as Northwood Holocaust Memorial Day Events, was launched 19 years by two synagogues. It has since grown to a partnership of nine communities who run programmes for around 3,500 students each year to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day.

Chair Barbara Cohen said: “We are very excited about the film, because it’s a completely new initiative that we hope will be helpful for students. I hope it heightens understanding of what the Holocaust was by signposting the key moments in history, through definitions and keynote dates, to give a context through which pupils can understand Janine Webber’s story and also that there have been genocides since the Holocaust.”

Barbara Cohen says that the reason the film chooses to focus on the plight of one individual is “to show the impact that this all has on the life of one survivor.” Yet though it concentrates on the memory of the past, Cohen says that the film has a “modern message” and hopes it will encourage those watching to see “how important it is to speak up, stand up and not just allow things to happen around you.”

The virtual screening is free for schools. It airs on February 1st and is available to watch until May at holocaustlearninguk.org

Find out more here: https://holocaustlearninguk.org/docufilm/

Watch a trailer for the doc here: