PFW Center of Excellence sponsors New York film premiere

Until presenting the context, it may sound unusual that Purdue University Fort Wayne is sponsoring a New York City film premiere.

“German Concentration Camp Factual Survey” was commissioned in April 1945 to be shot by newsreel cameramen accompanying Allied troops as they liberated Europe. The film was shelved until an abridged version was featured on the PBS show “Frontline” in the mid-1980s. Now the restored version will be shown at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens on April 30.

“For years, people thought the last reel of the film was lost, and this is the first time many will see the completed version in an actual theater,” said Steve Carr, director of PFW’s Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “As the only academic center in the state exclusively devoted to the Holocaust and other genocides, I think our institute offers an important perspective on the importance of documenting atrocity.”

The film will be presented as part of Genocide Awareness Month. PFW’s institute is one of the film’s four sponsors, and Carr, who is also a professor of communication at the university, will be part of a panel discussion following the film.

“One mission of the institute is to help raise awareness about the Holocaust and other genocides, and working at the national level is part of fulfilling that,” Carr said. “This is one of the few times we’re moving beyond the northeast Indiana area.”

Carr plans to talk with organizers about a screening of the film in Fort Wayne.

The institute was approved as one of PFW’s Centers of Excellence in 2009 to promote public awareness of the Holocaust and other genocides, supporting scholarship, research, and teaching, and promoting public participation in efforts to confront contemporary genocide when it occurs.

Since 2007, Indiana high schools have been required to include the study of the Holocaust in each United States history course, and a middle school requirement was added in 2019. One of the institute’s functions is to provide teachers with tools for their classes.

The institute is also joining with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Congregation Achduth Vesholom, a local Jewish temple, to sponsor a Holocaust Education in Indiana Teacher Symposium on June 13 and 14. Held at the Rifkin Campus, 5200 Old Mill Road, the sessions will be held in the evening on the first day and during daytime hours on the second.

The program includes reviews of best practices for teaching about the Holocaust, sessions on Judaism, eugenics, Indiana’s education requirements, and how to use primary source materials like films and historical newspapers to help students understand complex questions.

“Most teachers who teach about the Holocaust, at least the ones I come into contact with, are motivated—and we’re here to support them and be a resource,” Carr said. “One of the things I really want to do is try to convey to teachers is how important they are and their work is, especially in this area. If we are going to fulfill Indiana’s mandate with any kind of integrity, we are going to have to make sure our teachers feel valued and have the tools to be effective.”

Contact Carr at [email protected] or 260-481-6545 for more information.