In 2008, British filmmaker Luke Holland began interviewing Germans and Austrians who were former members of the Nazi Party and the SS. More than 10 years later, he created the documentary film Final Account, composed of a selection from the more than 250 interviews he had conducted. The son of a Jewish refugee from Vienna and a descendant of Jews killed by the Nazis, Holland struggled with the question of how and why ordinary people actively supported a regime that committed genocide. In partnership with Focus Features and Participant, the USC Shoah Foundation incorporated clips of the film into its IWitness educational platform to create a landmark use of perpetrator interviews for educators and students worldwide. Especially as heightened antisemitism and outright denial of facts concerning the Holocaust become more commonplace, this program opens up classrooms to new, vital questions about complicity, propaganda and responsibility. This session will include a short clip from the film as well as an overview of the free resources available to educators.
Final Account: Teaching the Holocaust, Complicity, Propaganda and Responsibility
Share
Available for one-hour of PD credit. A certificate of completion will be available for download at the end of your session that you can submit for your school's or district's approval.
Share My Lesson is now a New York State Education Department-approved provider for Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) requirements and an Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) approved Professional Development provider.
Chris Lane
Chris Lane serves as Vice President of Distribution at Participant, the leading company focused on content to inspire social change, where he has worked on such Academy Award-winning films as Judas and the Black Messiah, American Factory and Roma, as well as Oscar-nominated documentaries RBG and Collective. He has also worked on such recently acclaimed films including Flee, Final Account, The First Wave, My Name is Pauli Murray, American Utopia, John Lewis: Good Trouble, Just Mercy, On the Basis of Sex and Dark Waters, and the highly praised docuseries America to Me. In addition to collaborating with distributors on the release of Participant’s content, Lane also harness distribution opportunities for its social impact campaigns and educational initiatives. Before joining Participant, Lane previously worked at MGM, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Park Circus. Lane received his BA in Critical Studies from the USC School of Cinema-Television and received his MA from UCLA’s Moving Image Archive Studies specializing. Lane currently sits on the Outfest Legacy Project Advisory Board, has been a panelist for DOC NYC PRO, and has been a regular attendee and panelist at the Art House Convergence.
Resources
Wow! So important to learn about this.
