Remembering the Holocaust

The German invasion of Poland in 1939 marked the beginning of World War II and the escalation of Hitler's Nazi persecution of the Jews. It also was the beginning of one of the war's truly inspiring stories, that of a young Polish girl named Henia Bryer. In her own words, Henia tells how her family perished in concentration camps, how she survived and went on to witness to the creation of Israel.

Against all odds, an amazing 75% of the Jews in France survived the Nazi Holocaust. They were saved by citizens determined to keep their identity a secret. This is a never before told chapter of the intertwined history of Germany and France, from the perspective of someone who had experienced it all, who was saved, and is now adamant about giving these silent saviors the recognition they deserve.

This extraordinary film is the result of years of painstaking research by film historian Dr Jeremy Hicks into the Russian State Film Archives. Footage that was filed and ignored for decades brings to light shocking new evidence of Nazi death squads, including the massacre at Babi Yar. The discoveries were so sickening that the liberators made films for the public and future War Crimes Tribunals.

To be a Jew in Germany in the 1930s was not comfortable. Discover the incredible life of Edgar Feuchtwanger, a schoolboy in Munich at the time, who lived across the street from Hitler and who knew the fear and the dread shared by all German Jews witnessing the unstoppable ascent of a madman.

World War II in Europe ended on the 8th of May 1945. Adolph Hitler is dead. Allied armies have occupied Germany. The death camps are liberated. History's darkest chapter has come to an end. For the Jews of Europe, the suffering, dying, and grief continued. Together with leading historians, we explore their desperate struggle for a new beginning and efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Presented by Victor Pinchuk and Steven Spielberg, Spell Your Name follows three journalism students as they relive survivor stories from the Ukraine during the Holocaust; stories of people plunged to the darkest depths of human endurance and hopelessness.