As Seen Through These Eyes: Conversation with Film Director Hilary Helstein

In honor of UN Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hilary Helstein, director of the award-winning documentary “As Seen Through These Eyes” speaks with Rachel Stern, director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society New York, about the making of her documentary.

As poet Maya Angelou narrates this powerful documentary, she reveals the story of a brave group of people who fought Hitler with the only weapons they had: charcoal, pencil stubs, shreds of paper and memories etched in their minds. These artists took their fate into their own hands to make a compelling statement about the human spirit, enduring against unimaginable odds. Featuring interviews with Simon Wiesenthal as he talks about his art, never before appearing in a film, the children of Theresienstadt, Dina Babbitt, personal artist to Dr. Mengele, and Gypsy artist, Karl Stojka. Score features music by Sony/BMG’s Anna Nalick and Lorin Sklamberg of The Klezmatics.

This event is dedicated to the memory of Fred Terna (1923-2022), who died on 9 December 2022, at the age of 99 years.

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Fred Terna (1923-2022) was born in 1923 in Vienna. His family returned to Prague, their hometown, soon thereafter. He lived and attended school there until the Germans occupied the city in 1939. Beginning in October 1941, Mr. Terna was interned in a number of camps, including Terezin, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Kaufering, a sub-camp of Dachau. He was liberated near Landsberg in Bavaria on April 27, 1945. He was the only remaining member of his family. After liberation, Mr. Terna was hospitalized in Bavaria for a few months, then sent back to Prague for further recuperation. He left Prague late in 1946, settling in Paris for several years. In 1952, he arrived in New York. As an artist and painter, Terna used folded canvas, sand, and pebbles, seeking to address the psychological space of trauma, often incorporating the charged symbols of chimneys and ash to abstract effect. He served as president of the Jewish Visual Artists Association from 1978-1981. Besides speaking about his wartime experiences, he lectured extensively on the history of Jewish art, and taught a course on the subject for some years at the New School in New York.

This event is organized by the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, in partnership with Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York, Classrooms Without Borders, Descendants of Holocaust Survivors, Goethe Institut New York, German Film Office, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, Mensch International Foundation, 3G New York – Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival.