ARTE France commissions Pernel Media to produce "Ghettos of the Shoah"

ARTE France has commissioned Pernel Media to produce "Ghettos of the Shoah" (1x90’), a documentary film exploring the role of the Jewish ghetto in the Holocaust that will be broadcasted on ARTE’s prime time history slot.

In Central and Eastern Europe in WWII, more than 1,000 ghettos were established by the Nazis between 1939 and 1941, from the Baltic States to the Crimea. Poland alone had more than 300 of them. At least half of Europe’s Jews lived in a ghetto at one point and over 800,000 died while living in them. For the first time, "Ghettos of the Shoah" documents their origins and role in the Holocaust.

Directed by Barbara Necek "Ghettos of the Shoah" is being produced with the support of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. Pernel Media is also producing a 1 x 60’ version of the film for the international market.

“Ghettos were the antechamber of death for the Jews of Eastern Europe. Once the Final Solution became a reality in 1942, the ghettos were gradually liquidated, but some remained until the end of the war as an integral part of the Holocaust. The film aims to pay tribute to this vanished Jewish world by giving voice to the victims through their testimonies, which show the hope, despair and the spirit of spiritual, religious and even armed resistance of the Jews of the ghettos” said Fabrice Frank, Executive Producer at Pernel Media.