Comcast 2015: "Auschwitz"

USC Shoah Foundation is currently in the second year of Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD, a five-year partnership with Comcast to provide USC Shoah Foundation content to Comcast Xfinity customers On Demand, through the Xfinity TV Go app and online, in conjunction with the U.S. National Days of Remembrance, a commemoration of the Holocaust held every spring. Each year, the series is themed with a feature film anchoring the program offerings. This year, it is The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski, with “music” as the overall theme of the broadcast. Content will be available April 15-June 1, 2015.

("Auschwitz" screened during the commemoration at Auschwitz-Birkenau, January 27, 2015)

Comcast Xfinity viewers are able to watch the documentary that premiered during Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz as part of this year’s Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD broadcast.

Auschwitz was directed by James Moll, a co-founding director of USC Shoah Foundation and the director of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Last Days, which USC Shoah Foundation produced in 1998. It is narrated by Meryl Streep and describes the history of Auschwitz, where 1.1 million people were killed during the Holocaust.

The film includes excerpts of the testimonies of several survivors in the Visual history Archive, including Paula Lebovics and Noemi Ban. Sonderkommando Dario Gabbai sings and survivor Anita Wallfisch Lasker and her son, Raphael Wallfish, play cello on the film’s soundtrack.

Auschwitz is proving popular with educators, who are using it to teach their classes about the Holocaust. Johanna Soderholm, an English professor from Finland who participated in the Auschwitz: The Past is Present professional development program, said she shows it to the high school classes she’s visited. Its straightforward narrative style and easy-to-understand narration by Meryl Streep make it perfect for English language learners, she said.