6:00pm Mon. "Diamonds In The Snow" Q&A With Director and Holocaust Survivor: Mira Reym Binford

6:00pm Mon. "Diamonds In The Snow" Q&A With Director and Holocaust Survivor: Mira Reym Binford

Thousands of Jewish children lived in the Polish city of Bedzin before the Holocaust. Barely a dozen survived the community’s destruction. Through interviews, rare archival film and photos, this critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary tells the story of three of these children - Ada, Shulamit, and the filmmaker herself, Mira. The women recount their memories of childhoods spent hiding from the Nazis and reflect on the courage of those individuals and families who helped them survive. 

The film not only documents a tragic historical period but also examines the complexity of human nature under extreme duress, undermining stereotypes about the behavior of Jews, Poles, and even some Germans during the era. The film’s story involves Alfred Rossner, a German businessman who, like Oskar Schindler, employed forced Jewish labor and saved Jewish lives, but who, unlike Schindler, was not a Nazi Party member and paid for his actions with his life.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NseEkKTGPFA

Survivor and documentary maker, Mira Reym Binford, is Professor Emerita at Quinnipiac University, where she taught film and holocaust studies. She has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in Communication Arts, and has lived and/or worked in Poland, Germany, France, Israel, and Mexico, as well as in India and Bangladesh, where she co-directed an award-winning documentary series on "Contemporary South Asia."

DIAMONDS IN THE SNOW grew out of her experiences as a child hidden from the Nazis by total strangers, one of only about a dozen Jewish children -- out of thousands -- to survive the Nazi occupation of her hometown of Bedzin, Poland. The film has received numerous international festival screenings and awards, including First Prize in the National Jewish Video Competition, 1994. Broadcast nationally on PBS and the Odyssey Channel, as well as in Europe and Mexico, the film has aired in English, German, and Spanish versions. 

Critical Acclaim

 “An impressive piece of work... an expert interweaving of diverse strands of Holocaust reality that allows us to cherish the few Jewish lives that have been saved without losing sight of the infinitely greater Jewish community that has been lost.” 

- Lawrence Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory

 “Brave, sad, heroic, moving, remarkable.... an hour-long documentary that will shatter you and perhaps leave you in tears, but is so compelling that you will never turn away until the last frame fades to black."

- New Jersey Star-Ledger