Memories captured in stories are part of history. Preserving those memories for future generations helps keep history’s lessons alive.
In that spirit, the documentary film “Witness Project 2021,” in which the stories of five Holocaust survivors are told with the help of nearly 50 students, will premier June 9 on Zoom.
The film has a Kansas City connection through Jared Chapman, 17, one of the project’s participants. Jared’s father, Mark Chapman, is from here. Mark’s father, Paul Chapman, lives in Leawood, and Mark also has extended family living in the area. Mark and his family live in Roslyn, New York.
The UJA-Federation of New York sponsors the film, which is part of a Long Island Witness Project fundraiser for Holocaust survivor services. An anonymous donor pledged to match all donations dollar for dollar up to $100,000 through June 30.
“The program keeps the memory of the Holocaust alive in the hearts and minds of the next generation and helps the survivors come to terms with their past,” organizers said in promotional material for the film.
The project began in 2018. It was held again in 2019 as a stage performance and art exhibit, and in 2020 as a film, said Nancy Powers, a project coordinator.
Jared learned of the Witness Project soon after returning home from having his bar mitzvah in Israel. A friend who had taken part in the project told him about it, and Jared became interested in participating.
A trip to Yad Vashem during his bar mitzvah trip spurred an interest in the stories of Holocaust survivors.
At the museum, he was given a “twin.” That was a person who shared a birthday with Jared, but who died in the Holocaust. Jared learned about the person. “It’s kind of sad to see the parallel between my life and someone who had to live such a tragic life and die so young,” he said.
Jared said he knew his generation was one of the last ones who could learn Holocaust survivors’ stories from firsthand accounts. Students in the project also get to know “what they’re like as a person, what they do in their free time, how they were able to overcome such a tough challenge in their life and become successful.”
Although many people have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, he said, “it really doesn’t even compare to what some of these people went through.”
In applying for the project, Jared was asked what made him right for the program, why he deserved to take part and why it was important to him.
Jared is interested in journalism and described in his application that he had learned while working on his school newspaper the importance of finding first hand sources and talking with “someone who smelt, heard, felt … everything that went on (and that) it really just has different meaning.”
One of the survivors he met had lived in hiding from ages 2 to 8. Nazis murdered his father. Hearing the survivor tell the story and become emotional after so many years “was very sad.”
Knowing survivors’ stories underscores the importance of youth understanding history and “real facts, particularly with what’s going on in the world, people’s selective choice of what facts they’re going to listen to,” Mark said.
He expressed pride in his son for participating in the Witness Project and in “anything that involves understanding humanity and the importance of acceptance and avoiding the cruelty that somehow people manage to force others to suffer.”
“No one will believe it ever could happen without understanding it has happened,” he said.
Some of the survivors said they had not told their stories for decades “because of the horrors of it or embarrassment,” Mark said. The project served as an outlet and even an inspiration for them.
After he started telling his story, one of the survivors took his family to his old neighborhood in Poland to show them where he had come from.
“If I went through that kind of experience, I can’t imagine ever wanting to go back,” Mark said. “I certainly understand there’s human nature, and in his particular case I think he had lost all but one sibling or cousin.”
Many of the survivors’ positive attitudes surprised him.
“They’ve moved on,” he said. “They’ve overcome the adversity. Many of them are very funny. They make jokes. … They talk about the good things that have come about in their life, as well. I found it very uplifting.”
Jared wants viewers of the film to take with them the knowledge of how fortunate they are “to be able to live such a happy life and not have to worry about what some of the people throughout the Holocaust went through.”
“Let people see how truly lucky they are.”
