The project, headed by producer/director Joel Engardio of San Francisco, chronicles largely untold but historically significant events involving Jehovah-s Witnesses, including their fight for civil liberties in the U.S. Supreme Court (47 times before the court, with 36 wins) and their persecution in the Holocaust, said Mr. Engardio.
The television crew came to Memorial because eighth-grader Brian Grant-s grandfather, Joseph Kempler, was a Jewish Holocaust survivor who became a Jehovah-s Witness after the war out of admiration for their courageous stand as prisoners of conscience.
Jehovah-s Witnesses, like Jews, suffered and died in the concentration camps, Kempler explained, but unlike other prisoners, they could have been released simply by signing a piece of paper recanting their beliefs and pledging allegiance to Hitler.
Before an audience of Memorial eighth-graders, Kempler, who traveled all the way from Reno, Nevada, for the taping, movingly recounted his experiences from the age of 14, when he was separated from his parents in Poland, and then transported to a series of six concentration camps in Poland and Austria from 1942-45. He endured unbearable hardships, forced labor and hunger, barely surviving the war at a weight of only 60 pounds.
Staying alive was my only goal. I stopped feeling any emotions, said Kempler of his years in the concentration camps. Students asked many questions of Kempler and his wife, as part of the taping, and Memorial principal Dr. Kathleen Cairo gave an introductory welcome. When complete, Engardio hopes to enter the 60 to 90 minute documentary in the Sundance Film Festival next January and has promised a showing at Memorial next spring. Thanked for facilitating the preparations at Memorial were assistant superintendent Dr. Lois Austen, district director of social studies Richard Kuntzler and Memorial social studies department head Michael Serif.
As part of the documentary, Mr. Kempler will be traveling to Europe next fall to tape segments at the concentration camps. Much footage will also be taken
