| Description |
1 videodisc (130 min.) : sound, color & black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 audio disc (digital ; 4 3/4 in.) + 1 study guide (29 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm.) + 1 songbook (10 pages ; 19 cm.) |
| Playing Time |
021000 |
| System Details |
DVD; NTSC; Dolby Digital stereo. |
| Performer |
Narrator, Roberta Wallach; commentators, Abba Kovner, Nisan Reznik, Gabriel Sedlis, Chaya Lazar, Michael Lipenholtz, Elchanan Magid, Chajka Grossman, Liba Augenfeld, Pesia Bernstein, Isaac Kowalski, Stanley Wulc, Alexander Ryndziunski, Yechiel Burstein, Rushka Korchak-Marle, Baruch Goldstein, Morton Shames, Abraham Keren-Paz, Rachela Malezin, Vitka Kempner-Kovner, Szloma Kowarski, Ada Gens, Alexander Tamir, Yechiel Burgin, Cesia Rosenberg-Amit, Joseph Riwash, Ray Palevsky, Moshe Shutan, Shlomo Brandt, Zelda Treger-Nisanilewicz, Zenia Malecki, Alexander Bogen, Shmerke Kaczerginski, Simon Palevsky, Ted Sheres, Genrikas Zimanas, Boruch Kudowitz, Musia Lipman, Chiena Borowska. |
| Credits |
Edited by Josh Waletzky ; director of photography, Danny Shneuer ; photo animation, Edward Gray, Danny Shneuer ; consultants, Abba Kovner, Solon Beinfeld, Yehuda Bauer, David Marwell, Miriam Novitch, Eli Pfefferkorn, Leyzer Ran, David Roskies ; translator, Kobi Weitzner ; maps by Barbara Leckie. |
| Note |
Originally produced as a documentary motion picture in 1986. |
| Audience |
MPAA Rating: Not rated. |
| Summary |
How does a community respond to a threat so vast and inhuman as to beggar the imagination? How does an individual resist that threat, when resistance may bring harm to the very people one is trying to defend? This documentary records the testimony of Holocaust survivors who, as young Jewish men and women in the Lithuanian city of Vilna, engaged in armed resistance against the Nazis, often in opposition to fellow Jews. Politically active Jewish youth, many members of vigorous Zionist and Socialist groups, realized what was happening, and in 1942 formed an organized resistance. To fight the Nazis was, in the eyes of many Vilna Jews, to threaten the lives of all those who remained in the ghetto. But to submit to the Nazis was also to support a murderous regime and participate in the annihilation of one's own people. The film addresses a question history has answered: Was it better to preserve life at any cost, or to risk death in order to preserve honor? |
| Contents |
DVD Defend ourselves -- Abductions -- Sealed ghetto -- Call to arms -- Partisan handbook -- Shameful actions -- Hearing the call -- Partisan bases -- Everyone against us -- Fighting units -- Refugees in need -- Credits. |
|
CD S'iz gevern a zumertog = It was a summer day / performed by Michael Alpert (3:57 min.) -- Yisrolik / performed by David J. Waletzky (3:00 min.) -- Unter dayne vayse shtern = Under your white stars / performed by Adrienne Cooper (3:33 min.) -- Yid, du partizaner = You Jewish partisan / performed by Josh Waletzky (1:59 min.) -- Blayene platn = Lead printing plates / performed by Irena Klepfisz (1:48 min.) -- Itzik Vitnberg / performed by Henry Sapoznik (2:25 min.) Shtiler, shtiler = Quiet, quiet / performed by Adrienne Cooper (3:25 min.) -- Zemlyanka = Dugout / performed by Michael Alpert (2:15 min.) -- Tsu eyns, tsvey, dray = It's one, two, three / performed by Henry Sapoznik (2:21 min.) -- Dos meydl fun vald = The girl from the forest / performed by Irena Klepfisz (2:04 min.) -- Shtil di nakht = A quiet night / performed by Josh Waletzky (3:04 min.) -- Zog nit keynmol = Never say / performed by Michael Alpert (3:21 min.). |
| Note |
Special features: Audio commentary from producer Aviva Kempner [optional audio feature]; Audio commentary from director Josh Waletzky [optional audio feature]; Photo gallery [slide show]; Producer's statement [text feature]; Filmmaker biographies [text feature]; About Docurama [text feature]; Catalog/trailers [text and video feature] (18 min.); booklets include a study guide with background, film details, questions for discussion, and supplementary materials; and songbook with liner notes and song lyrics in original Yiddish and English. |
| Language |
In English and Hebrew with subtitles in English. |
| Note |
GMD: videorecording. |
| Subject |
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
|
|
World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
|
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
|
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Jews -- Persecutions -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
|
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Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
|
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
|
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
|
| Genre/Form |
Documentary films.
|
|
Historical films.
|
| Added Author |
Waletzky, Josh.
|
|
Kempner, Aviva.
|
|
Wallach, Roberta.
|
|
National Endowment for the Humanities.
|
|
Ciesla Foundation.
|
|
Docurama (Firm)
|
|
New Video Group.
|
| Note |
i Title on disc label and container: Partisans of Vilna the untold story of Jewish resistance during World War II |
| ISBN |
0767064720 |
|
9780767064729 |
| Standard No. |
767685961438 |
| Music No. |
18964-0450-2 Rounder Records |
|
NVG-9614 New Video Group |
|
