Monday, January 27, 7:30 pm • Sandler Family Campus
For more than 35 years, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater has sponsored and supported the Holocaust Commission of Tidewater. The Commission’s members personally knew many local survivors and escorted them to schools, military bases, and organizations to share their poignant stories. Witnessing their bravery and impact on the countless lives they touched, the Commission embarked on a journey to develop a program that would perpetuate their legacy.
After a lengthy search, the services of two award-winning Los Angeles-based filmmakers were secured. They developed a program titled, What We Carry. This innovative program is comprised of short films, each featuring an individual survivor, accompanied by a vintage suitcase of replicas of the survivor’s personal journey. These films are presented individually by a trained docent. In 2012, the first four films of the What We Carry program premiered at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. With some Commission members present, Leibe Geft, the Center’s director, introduced and lauded this program as the hope for the future. After premiering at the Roper Theatre in Norfolk to a standing room only crowd, the Commission began sharing the program locally and internationally.
In 2016, three more survivors’ films premiered at The Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach with an overflow crowd of more than 1,300. What We Carry has been presented at the State and National Social Studies Conferences, the International Educators Conference at Y’ad Vashem in Jerusalem, and internationally on Jewish Life TV. These films were requested to be preserved in the film archives of Y’ad Vashem. The program has been presented by Commission volunteers to more than 50,000 adults and students.
The final What We Carry film features Colonel Eddie Shames. This powerful film recounts Shames’ life and time served during World War II as a Jewish officer. Colonel Shames was a member of the renowned Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division known as the “Band of Brothers.” He received a battlefield commission and liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Shames died in 2021.
Share a tribute to Eddie Shames and all Jewish Tidewater’s survivors at this special showing on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Talmud says, “There are stars whose light only reaches the earth long after they have fallen apart. There are people whose remembrance gives light in this world, long after they have passed away. This light shines in our darkest nights on the road we must follow.”
This light of which the Talmud speaks is Jewish Tidewater’s precious