Twenty-five years after it premiered worldwide, Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning movie about the Holocaust, Schindler’s List, was re-released in theaters in 2019. Spielberg felt it was essential that the magnitude and tragedy of the true stories of the Holocaust not be forgotten, and the lessons learned from the film are critical to countering hatred that continues to reverberate today.
In recent years, there has been a concerning upsurge of anti-Semitism around the world, and a public outcry has gone out. Movie producer and director Robert Moniot brings another Holocaust story to light in his upcoming film, The Ice Cream Man, which premieres later this summer. The movie tells the true story of ERNST CAHN, the co-owner of Amsterdam’s most popular ice cream parlor, who discovers he is being set up as a scapegoat by the future “Butcher of Lyon,” LT. KLAUS BARBIE. When Ernst’s desperate act of resistance leads to his arrest and torture, the public outcry sets off a chain of events that leads to the “February Strike,” the largest mass resistance against the Nazis during World War II.
Spielberg’s and Moniot’s movies are two visible components that enlighten us about the atrocities of anti-Semitism and counter the alarming disinformation and hatred. Moniot says that cinema can be a powerful weapon in that battle and intends to wield it—that it must be fought and defeated.
Winner of the 2022 Claims Conference’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, The Ice Cream Man will premiere later this summer. Look through the website for more information and updates.
Steven Spielberg on Storytelling’s Power to Fight Hate
The director is reissuing “Schindler’s List,” as he expands the mission of the Shoah Foundation through video testimonies of genocide survivors.
By Adam Popescu
Dec. 18, 2018
LOS ANGELES — “Pinchas, how old are you?” Steven Spielberg asked the wall screen, a life-size video image of an elderly man in a cardigan, who blinked and answered without missing a beat. “I was born in 1932, so you can make your own arithmetic,” responded Pinchas, in a Polish accent.
“He asked me to do the math!” Mr. Spielberg laughed. “How did you survive when so many did not?”
“How did I survive?” the screen responded. “I survived, I believe, because providence watched over me.”
The chat went on for five minutes, and while the artificial intelligence looked eerily reminiscent of Mr. Spielberg’s earlier films, the goal wasn’t entertainment — it was education…
