SOLD OUT! Preview & Discussion: “The U.S. and the Holocaust”
This event has sold out.
Join WTTW and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center for an in-person preview and discussion about Ken Burns’ new documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust. This three-part, six-hour series tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of our democracy. The U.S. and the Holocaust premieres on all WTTW platforms beginning on Sunday September 18 at 7:00 pm.
Selections from the film will be previewed along with Paris Schutz, co-anchor of WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, who will moderate a conversation with the film’s advisors Daniel Greene, President and Librarian of the Newberry Library. Greene is the author and curator of Americans and the Holocaust, in which The U.S. and the Holocaust is based; Peter Hayes, Professor of History and German, Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor of Holocaust Studies Emeritus at Northwestern University.
Hayes’ book, WHY? EXPLAINING THE HOLOCAUST, is featured in the documentary. The conversation will focus on the periods leading up to and during the Holocaust and a candid look at the roles that eugenics and racism, as well as xenophobia and antisemitism, played during this crisis and throughout American history.
At 6:00 pm, guests will have an opportunity to visit the Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II exhibition at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. The exhibit tells the story of the U.S. Army’s 23rd Special Troops, which used disguise, sound, and radio deception to mislead the Germans about the location, strength, and movements of U.S. Army units.
The U.S. and the Holocaust is directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick & Sarah Botstein, telescript by Geoffrey C. Ward and produced by Burns, Novick, Botstein and Mike Welt.
