A mother, a father, four brothers, and a sister live in Hrubieszów, Poland, a small town with a majority Jewish population. They thrive economically and academically despite antisemitism. Survivors of the family and the town describe the Nazi invasion, brutality, destruction, and murder. Personal photographs and documents enhance reflective first person accounts.
About the Film
A Brief Statement from the Filmmaker:
Survivor and witness accounts of the Holocaust are some of my earliest memories, stories told by my parents, who were not survivors, but had meaningful experiences through my father’s World War II military service in Europe, and snatches of stories heard from friends and neighbors. Eventually this led to my thirty-three year career as archivist at Yale’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. The thousands of testimonies I have viewed and cataloged offer a sharp contrast to superficial, popular culture portrayals of the Holocaust. It is crucial to convey the real events of the Holocaust, as told by those who experienced it. Since 1987 I have produced or co-produced documentaries based on video accounts of Holocaust witnesses for this purpose. “I Am Free….But Who Is Left?” is the latest.
–Joanne Weiner Rudof, Vlock Fellow 2020
Filmmakers
Joanne W. Rudof
Joanne Weiner Rudof retired as the archivist at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University in September 2017 after thirty-three years. She has written numerous articles, book chapters, and conference papers on Holocaust testimonies. She has edited and produced documentaries including Voices from the Yugoslav Holocaust, Remembering Częstochowa, Parallel Paths, and the award winning national PBS broadcast, Witness: Voices from the Holocaust for which she was co-editor of the book with the same title. She has coordinated over twenty Holocaust testimony projects in North and South America, Europe, and Israel and advised video testimony projects documenting genocide, oppression, and human rights violations. She was a 2019 recipient of an award from Lessons & Legacies and the Holocaust Education Foundation in recognition of her “Distinguished Contribution to Holocaust Education.”
Lawrence L. Langer
Lawrence L. Langer is Alumnae Chair Professor of English emeritus from Simmons College (now Simmons University) in Boston, from which he retired in 1992. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Holocaust literature, memoirs, testimony and art, including The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination (1976), which was one of three finalists for the National Book Award. His Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory (1991) won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism and was named one of the ten best books of the year by the Sunday New York Times Book Review. His most recent work is The Afterdeath of the Holocaust (2021). He has also provided extended critical commentary for twelve volumes representing the artistic achievement of child Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak , whose titles include Landscapes of Jewish Experience (1997), Return to Vilna (2007), and From Generation to Generation (2016). In 2016 he received the Holocaust Educational Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award for Holocaust Studies and Research.
Press
Screening: Yale, L01, Humanities Quadrangal
Cancelled/The Fortunoff Archive is pleased to announce that "I Am Free...But Who is Left?" will be screened at on Thursday, October 12 at 7:00pm at the Humanities Quadrangle, L01 at Yale University.
Screening: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (November 29, 2022)
The YIVO Center for Jewish History will be screening "I Am Free...But Who is Left?" on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 at 7:30 PM EST. Learn more about the event and register here: https://www.yivo.org/I-Am-Free
Screening: Center for Medicine, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies (October 20, 2022)
The Fortunoff Archive is pleased to announce that "I Am Free…But Who is Left?" will be screened on Thursday, October 20, 2022 at the Center for Medicine, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The screening will include a talkback with director, producer, and editor Joanne Weiner Rudof (Vlock Fellow 2020) and associate producer and editor Lawrence L. Langer. The Center for Medicine, Holocaust and Genocide Studies brings together international scholars of all disciplines to expand and share knowledge about the activities of medical professionals before, during and after the Holocaust and other genocides and human atrocities. The Center pursues this mission through public events that expose attendees to the work and thoughts of leading scholars and through fellowships that support original scholarship. It is situated within the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. Learn more about the Center’s event series here: https://www.cedars-sinai.edu/education/history/center-for-medicine-holocaust-and-genocide-studies/events.html Register for the talkback, which will be held over Zoom, here: https://cedars-sinai.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvd-2qqDMoE9O_0sM1G2bHaAyqKJZmsR2r
Screening in 2022
Production is almost complete on our new documentary, I Am Free...But Who Is Left?, with screenings planned for 2022. More details forthcoming.
Screening: Yale University
The Fortunoff Archive is pleased to announce that "I Am Free...But Who is Left?" will be screened at on Thursday, October 12 at 7:00pm at the Humanities Quadrangle, L01 at Yale University. "I Am Free...But Who is Left?" was directed and produced by 2020 Vlock Fellow Joanne Weiner Rudof and co-produced by Lawrence L. Langer. "I Am Free...But Who is Left?" documents a mother, a father, four brothers, and a sister living in Hrubieszów, Poland, a small town with a majority Jewish population. They thrive economically and academically despite antisemitism. Survivors of the family and the town describe the Nazi invasion, brutality, destruction, and murder. Personal photographs and documents enhance reflective first-person accounts. To view the film trailer and learn more about the film please visit the film website here. "https://www.yivo.org/I-Am-Free">https://www.yivo.org/I-Am-Free