WATERTOWN, NY (January 22, 2024) – Leading up to International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday, January 27th, 2024, WPBS-TV will premiere the new AMERICAN EXPERIENCE special: Nazi Town USA – Tuesday, January 23rd at 9:00 pm. WPBS will also broadcast three additional Holocaust-themed specials the afternoon of Sunday, January 28th. WPBS’s Holocaust programming line-up in January is as follows:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2024
American Experience: Nazi Town USA (9:00 pm)
The story documents the February 1939 rally when more than twenty thousand Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Pro-American Rally.” Images of George Washington hung next to swastikas and speakers railed against the “Jewish controlled media” and called for a return to a racially “pure” America. The keynote speaker was Fritz Kuhn, head of the German American Bund. Nazi Town, USA tells the largely unknown story of the Bund, which had scores of chapters in suburbs and big cities across the country and represented what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. The Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Its melding of patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism raised thorny issues that we continue to wrestle with today.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2024
My Survivor (1:00 pm)
Who will tell the story of the Holocaust when the last survivor is gone? MY SURVIVOR documents the life-changing experiences of some of the 500 University of Miami students who forge intimate relationships with Holocaust survivors through an innovative internship program. Building powerful intergenerational bonds, students listen to survivors’ first-hand accounts and come to embrace their cause to preserve the memory and lessons of the Holocaust.
The Broken Promise (2:00 pm)
After World War II, humanity declared that genocide would never be allowed to happen again. But “never again” has become “again and again,” from Cambodia to Bosnia, Rwanda, China, Ukraine, and sadly more. What makes people dehumanize one another? Why does it keep happening? And what can we do to make “never again” a reality? THE BROKEN PROMISE explores the mechanics of genocide, the conditions that allow it to occur, and the ideas and institutions that stand against it. The film presents the raw, unflinching first-person stories told by the survivors of genocide, and examines how the trauma of genocide ripples through generations.
I Danced for the Angel of Death – The Dr. Edith Eva Eger Story (3:00 pm)
Edie recounts her remarkable story of survival as a prisoner at Auschwitz and her struggles with survivor’s guilt. Edie and her husband came to the U.S. in 1949, and Edie would later go on to receive a psychology degree from the University of Texas. In the film, Edie examines how her ongoing work with patients has helped her grow and heal.
About WPBS
WPBS is a PBS station serving approximately 650,000 households throughout Northern New York and Eastern Ontario via cable, satellite, Internet and over-the-air distribution. WPBS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate, inform, and engage its two-nation region with exceptional and trusted content across multiple platforms. Its vision is to be the premier provider of extraordinary public media that instills wonder and curiosity across generations and borders. More information about WPBS, including a full channel listing, is available at wpbstv.org, or by following WPBS on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
