Thread by @M_X_F

🧵 This evening I attended the premier of Holocaust Learning UK’s newest film ‘Out of the Darkness: Steven’s Story’ at @JW3London by @TapestryPics narrated by @jasonsfolly. The film is aimed at year 9 students learning about the Holocaust. @HolocaustLearn holocaustlearninguk.org

The (free) 1h film is INCREDIBLE. Please please tell your #history departments all about it. I’ve been learning about the #Holocaust since I was 11 and learnt so much I didn’t know from this film, which centres on the impact of Nazis in Holland. @histassoc @HolocaustLearn

I didn’t know that 300,00 Dutch workers went on strike after Nazi roundups of Jews in Holland.
I didn’t know that Dutch resistance members sacrificed their lives to burn town records to try to protect the identities of their Jewish neighbours... nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/a…

...I didn’t know about the 2 Dutch TEENAGE GIRLS, Freddie & Truus Oversteegen who went around on bicycles SHOOTING at Nazis and collaborators.
I didn’t know that Dutch rail workers went on strike after Allies landed in Europe, leading to a winter of starvation for Dutch people.

The film weaves in the story of Anne Frank, Steven Frank (no relation) and other survivor testimonies read by young actors, moving archive footage and first hand testimony from Steven. It’s unforgettable. @AnneFrankTrust @annefrankhouse holocaustlearninguk.org/films/

The film ends by bringing in modern examples of #antisemitism, white supremacy and hatred against other groups including #Islamophobia, anti-Black #racism, #homophobia, #transphobia, and the oppression of the #Uighurs. @HolocaustLearn

I was #10percentbraver and asked the 1st audience question to survivor Steven and the panel: “What do you want the legacy of this film to be?”

Steven said: “I want the legacy to be for everyone who sits and thinks “that’s nothing to do with me” to sit up and listen.”

“Remember a bully is only a bully because they’re weak. You can put them down if you catch them early. But if you leave it… that’s when it becomes more dangerous “ - Steven Frank BEM, Holocaust survivor @HolocaustLearn @HolocaustUK @UCL_Holocaust

Steven shared a Poem from a Dutch resistance fighter:
“I will not toe the line
Nor follow where they lead
This life they choose to live
Is not the same as mine"

Steven also talked about the power of his mother, who traded clean clothes for meagre portions of bread in Theresienstadt camp, mixed it with water, and fed the paste to her 3 boys in the children’s home...

@HolocaustLearn

...His mother who disguised herself as a man and swapped places with a cleaner in the prison her husband was incarcerated in to get a chance to talk to him...

@HolocaustLearn

...His mother who raised her 3 boys in England after the war under her “protective wing” and helped to nurture them so that, he reports, they do not get flashbacks or PTSD from the horrendous things they lived through in the Holocaust.

@HolocaustLearn

After the film, Lord Austin of Dudley, President of @HolocaustLearn remarked on the lack of hatred and bitterness shown by Holocaust survivors. Their collective dedication to work for a stronger society is proof that the Nazis did not win and similar ideologies never will...

...That and the fact that survivor Steven Frank has 14 grandchildren.

Thank you for reading this long 🧵.

1. Please share with #history colleagues.

2. REGISTER to watch and screen the film in your school.

holocaustlearninguk.org/register/

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