Until the Last Step: Stories of Holocaust Resistance and Heroism in Belarus

October 19, 7:30-9:30 PM

Location: The Media and Public Affairs Building, Room 310, George Washington University, 805 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC

A Film Screening and Conversation Series with Israeli documentary director Boris Maftsir, creator of the Searching for the Unknown Holocaust film series, October 17-19, 2017

Toward the end of the winter of 1942, almost all of the murder campaigns against the Jews of Eastern Belarus were complete, but in many places in Western Belarus, some ghettos remained.

In 1942, the ghetto in the town of Lachva witnessed an uprising. The rebels had no chance. They knew their fate was doomed, but they chose how to die. The uprisings in Lachva and other shtetls surprised the Germans. For the first time they came upon Jews who were willing to resist. Until the Last Step presents stories of heroism and death in the ghettos of Nesvitch, Lachva, Gluboki, and the brave story of escape through a tunnel in the Novogrudek ghetto. The film also exposes the Nazis’ attempt to obscure the massacre of Jews that was taking place.

Post-screening Q&A with Boris Maftsir will be led by Professor Jeffrey Richter, the Chief Historian for the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.  Dr. Richter joined the Justice Department's Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of Special Investigations, where he served as a historian until 2010. Since 2010, he has worked as a historian in the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.  For several years, he has taught courses at George Washington University on the history of the Holocaust and of war crimes trials.

To register, please email John Vail at johnvail@gwu.edu