Note to Correspondents

United Nations to Honour Child Holocaust Victims by Screening

‘The Last Flight of Petr Ginz’ at Headquarters, 25 January

A new documentary on the life and artwork of a Jewish youth from Prague who died in the Holocaust will be shown at United Nations Headquarters in New York City on 25 January.

This special screening of The Last Flight of Petr Ginz, as well as a panel discussion, will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Conference Room 1 of the North Lawn Temporary Conference Building.  Not yet available to the public, the film is produced by the Documentary Film Program at Wake Forest University and the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida.

Petr Ginz, who died after spending two years in the ghetto and transit camp of Terezin, was a brilliant boy who wrote a diary and four novels in addition to creating 200 illustrations and paintings during his short life.

“Through Petr’s story, young people today will learn how important it is to stand up against hatred and prejudice,” said Kiyo Akasaka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.

As part of its efforts to teach young people around the world about the horrors of the Holocaust, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme has published a 32-page companion to the film as a study guide for students aged 13 and above.  It was produced in partnership with the International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, and the Wake Forest Documentary Film Program.

Petr began writing his diary in 1941, when he was 13 years old and living in Nazi-occupied Prague.  By detailing his daily life in the diary and in expressive illustrations, he inspires his audience as he draws them into the creative world of his imagination.  At the age of 14, Petr was taken from his family and sent to Terezin, where he kept writing and drawing for two years before the Nazis sent him to his death at Auschwitz.

“While Petr did not return to us, he did make a valuable contribution to the world through his art and writings,” said Chava Pressburger, Petr’s sister, who survived the Holocaust.  “I am proud that Petr’s legacy lives on.”

The post-screening panel discussion will feature Under-Secretary-General Akasaka; Edita Hrdá, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations; Yoram Pressburger, Petr’s nephew; Stephen Cypen, Executive Producer of the film; Sandra Dickson of the Wake Forest Documentary Film Program; Churchill Roberts of the University of Florida Documentary Institute; Cory Godbey, film animator; and Leo Lowry, a Holocaust survivor of the Terezin Ghetto and childhood friend of Petr Ginz.  Kimberly Mann, Manager of the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, will moderate.

The United Nations Holocaust Programme produces online and print educational products and organizes seminars and events, including the annual worldwide observance, every 27 January, of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

For more information about the Programme, please visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance.  Please register for its upcoming events at holocaustremembrance@un.org.

Media inquiries can be made by contacting Kimberly Mann at +1 212 963 6835 or mann@un.org, or Sandra Dickson, filmmaker, at +1 336 692 9854 or dicksosj@wfu.edu.

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