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Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission

Middle School Audiovisual Resources

Approved Audiovisual Resources for the Classroom

SB 1828 assigns the THGAAC the task of approving audiovisual resources that can be used in the classroom. The following resources are approved. SB 1828 allows each Texas school district to decide which THGAAC-approved materials are age-appropriate for their students.

Educators should screen in advance anything shown to students to ensure appropriateness.

A Daughter's Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust, 2023. Anna Salton Eisen shares her journey to uncover her father’s hidden Holocaust past. Using her father’s artwork, original Nazi documents and photographs from her research and trips with her father back to Poland, Anna shares her detailed search. This 20-minute presentation is designed for middle and high school students; view here

A Lasting Image, directed by Kirstin Stevens Schmidt, Ana Villareal, Scott Huddleston, and Christine Veras, 2022; American short film features Texas survivor Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth, whose memoir, When the Danube Ran Red, is also approved for classroom use; 3 minutes; view here

A Night at the Garden, directed by Marshall Curry, 2017. American documentary film; employs archival footage of 1939 American Nazi rally; 7 minutes; view here

Alma Rosé: A Tribute with the Ranana Symphonette Orchestra, 2016. Israeli television news story about Gustav Mahler’s niece, who served as Kapo for the women’s orchestra in Auschwitz, where she was killed; music teachers may find this of interest; 3 minutes; view here

Blessed is the Match, directed by Roberta Grossman, 2010. American documentary film; features the story of Hannah Senesh, who was part of a small team of Jews that parachuted into Yugoslavia on a mission to save Hungary’s endangered Jews; she was captured and executed, but her poems are widely read; 86 minutes; view here

European Antisemitism from Its Origins to the Holocaust, USHMM, 2021. American documentary film; presents an overview of the growth of hatred and persecution of the Jewish people; 14 minutes; view here

No Place on Earth, directed by Janet Tobias, 2013. American documentary film; survivors who hid in the world’s second-largest underground cavernous formation during the Holocaust return decades later to tell their story; the picture book, The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story, tells of the same family; 83 minutes; view here

One Survivor Remembers, directed by Kary Antholis, 1995. American documentary film; features interviews with Gerda Weissmann Klein, who survived concentration camps and a death march that are also described in the memoir, All But My Life; 40 minutes; opening images depict emaciated corpses; appropriate for upper middle school; entire film may be found here

Rescue and Return, 2024. Video by filmmakers Anna Salton Eisen and Aaron Eisen of Texas, describing the fascinating activities of two individuals: Irena Sendler, who rescued Jewish children during the Holocaust, and Anna’s own mother, a Holocaust survivor who aided orphaned Jewish child survivors during the postwar period. 20 minutes; view here

The Art of Ghetto Survivor, Samuel Bak (from the Pucker Gallery)

The Courage to Care, directed by Robert Gardner, 1985. American documentary film; features interviews with rescuers and rescued; 29 minutes; view here

The Miracle of Shanghai, posted by Shanghai Daily. Short video describing how Shanghai, China, provided refuge to thousands of Jews who fled the Holocaust; 5 minutes (Note: Some of those Jews eventually settled in Texas.) view here

The Path to Nazi Genocide, USHMM, 2014. American documentary film; features the rise of Nazism and Hitler, as well as its impact on Jews; 39 minutes; view here

Audiovisual resources on the THGAAC Antisemitism page and the THGAAC Texas Connections page are also approved for classroom use during Holocaust Remembrance Week.
Educators are also encouraged to locate online survivor testimonies, especially through the multiple museum websites and USC Shoah Foundation links on the Approved Lesson Plans and Other Resources for the Classroom page.

Educators wanting to discuss the age-appropriateness of resources should contact THGAAC State Coordinator of Education Dr. J.E. Wolfson at jwolfson@thgaac.texas.gov .