In June 2015, Inna Rogatchi’s The Lessons of Survival film has been chosen as the closing show of the Faces of Humanity Special Film Series, a co-project of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Educational Centre and the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema.
Inna Rogatchi has been invited as a Special Guest and Speaker at the event.
The event was attended by the leaderships of both co-organising institutions, the leadership of the MidWest office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, internationally leading Rabbis, educators and cultural figures.
In her Opening Remarks, Lillian Polus Gerstner, Director of the Special Programs for the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre, has emphasised a special note for their institution which “has become a platform for the US premiere of an internationally acclaimed documentary”. Lillian Gerstner attested to the film as a “very fine and very special work by Inna Rogatchi who has created a unique documentary based on her personal relationships with Simon Wiesenthal. In this film, we can see the legendary Nazi-hunter from a very close range, and we can see and feel his personality really closely. This makes the film unique, especially since Wiesenthal’s passing away ten years ago, and even before that, there has not been a film on him and with him done from such a unique perspective”.
 |  |
Lillian Polus Gerstner, left, of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre, and Cindy Stern, of the Chicago Film Festival of Israeli Cinema in their Opening and Introductory Remarks. Chicago, June 2015.
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation
Cindy Stern, Director of the Chicago Festival of the Israeli Cinema, in her Introductory Speech, has made the following comparison:
“Dr. Inna Rogatchi shares much in common with the subject of Lessons of Survival, Simon Wiesenthal. Both were born in what is now Ukraine. Both earned scientific degrees and have had multiple careers. Both are global citizens and activists. Both have made their marks as noted authors and speakers. And both have demonstrated a love of the Jewish people, preserving our heritage and making the world a better place”. In her introduction of Inna Rogatchi, Cindy Stern was very generous: “After spending time with Inna this week, I must add to all her titles and capacities she is working in; the title ‘Superwoman.’
At the occasion of the US premiere of her film, Inna Rogatchi has been awarded by the Chicago Film Festival of Israeli Cinema and the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre a special Diploma “Honouring Dr Inna Rogatchi for her artistic, academic, governmental, societal and personal contributions to the Jewish people, Holocaust education, and Israel”.
 |  |
On the left: Inna Rogatchi receiving a Special Diploma from Cindy Stern;
On the right: Inna Rogatchi addressing the public. Chicago, June 2015.
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation
Inna Rogatchi addressed the public with the introduction to her film, and also with a Special Lecture after the film’s screening.
In her address, the author of the film emphasised the role of the first-hand witness of the Holocaust: “As far as I understand, the most terrible tragedy in modern history, there is not one Holocaust, and not even 6 million Holocausts. To me, there are 9,5 million personal Holocausts of the European pre-Second World War Jewry, and there are 14,2 million Holocausts of the Jewish people world-wide today, many of whom are children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren of the generation affected by the Holocaust directly. All of us, the successors of the Holocaust victims, have been affected by that devastating trauma.
The effect of the traumas inflicted by the Holocaust has been highly personal and unique in its manifestation and effect. Every human being matters, every life, every soul counts – such a perception is based on Jewish ethics. That’s why, I do believe that every single story of Holocaust survivors and their families, everything what we can collect, shall be recorded. This is the historical legacy of mankind.
This was my approach when making the documentary on Simon Wiesenthal, a very special man in modern Jewish history, and I believe, in Jewish history in general, too. I deliberately wanted to talk with Simon Wiesenthal in a way, as if the camera was not there, and to film him from a close range. And I am ever so very grateful to that great man, who I and my husband were very privileged to be good friends with, for his generous trust and simplicity with which he did share his life experience with me”.
Inna Rogatchi and Cindy Stern at the US premiere of The Lessons of Survival film. Chicago, 2015.
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation
Commemorating the US premiere of the film, Inna Rogatchi has been invited to deliver a Special Lecture at the occasion of the premiere.
 |  |
Inna Rogatchi presenting her Special Lecture at the US premiere of her film in Chicago. June 2015.
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation
The lecture “The Lessons of Survival – the Lessons of Courage and Humanity” was created by Inna Rogatchi on the basis of her film and Simon Wiesenthal’s life, for a wider outreach in the modern time. Fifteen lessons that have been extracted by the author to model our approach and attitude at the challenging situations of today. “Clearly, those situations and challenges are not remotely close to those inhuman torments that occurred to Holocaust victims. But in some of them, there are factors which have attributes similiar to the Holocaust, as well. That’s why, to learn from the heroic people who overcame the Holocaust, is a true moral treasure and a great help and support for all of us today”, – explained Inna Rogatchi.
After a very successful lecture, Inna Rogatchi proposed to write a special book based on her Lessons of Courage and Humanity, with illustrations by the works of her husband, renowned artist Michael Rogatchi, and herself.
 |  |
Inna Rogatchi answers questions from the public during the Q&A session after her film’s screening in Chicago. June 2015.
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation
At the Q&A session following the Special Lecture, there were many questions from a deeply interested and involved public, and those questions varied from the days and figure of Simon Wiesenthal to many present-day phenomena which are very real for the US and world Jewry. Several questions in particular were devoted to Holocaust education, which is still felt to be inadequate by many practising educators, in particular, in the USA. “Apart from Jewish schools where the Holocaust is taught very thoroughly, the rest of our educational system still lacks the proper level of Holocaust education. Even when it is in the school’s curriculum, which is not the case in general in the USA, this is a non-sponsored part of the curriculum, meaning that it is often shallow and simply inadequate” – pointed out by Chicago educators during the vivid public discussion.
Inna Rogatchi was also asked if she has a vision of how to prevent the racial hatred which seems to be gaining its peak again today. “I do, and for many years am trying to make it happen. I am advocating for making a trip to one of the Nazi death camps to be mandatory in every curriculum at every school in every country world-wide. Only when a teenager, or a young person of 15-16-17 years old sees the camps with their own eyes will they learn first-hand and on the spot, what has happened there not that long ago, only then will a youth get his or her anti-racism ‘vaccination’. I am absolutely positive in this view, and am trying hard to be heard on it in practical terms on the international level”, – concluded Inna Rogatchi.
From the left: Director for Development, Aish Ha Torah, Rabbi Yonah Yaffe, Inna Rogatchi and philanthropist Rivkie Muskat at the US premiere of Inna Rogatchi’s film. Chicago, 2015.
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation
The film has been received very warmly by the Chicago audience. Alison Pure-Slovin, Director of the MidWest office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre attested to the film as “excellent”, while Lillian Polus Gerstner, Director for Special Programs at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre has concluded in her Closing Remarks that “the role of the documentarist is to provoke thoughts. It is quite obvious that Inna Rogatchi has carried her role as documentarist to the highest and very productive level. We all will be thinking about what we have seen in her film, for many days and months ahead. Thank you for that, dear Inna!”.
From the left: Lillian Polus Gerstner, Director for Special Projects, Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre; Inna Rogatchi, and Cindy Stern, Director of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, at the ceremony in Chicago. June 2015
© Courtesy: The Rogatchi Foundation.
After the US premiere of The Lessons of Survival in Chicago, the film is planned for further screenings and special events in Washington DC, New York, Boston and other parts and places of the USA.