Children of Terror @ MCHGRC

Shawn Kildea hosted a screening of the film, a documentary tale of two girls – a Polish Catholic and a German Jew – who both survived the Holocaust as children to forge a close friendship, on Thursday, January 31, at 7:30 p.m.

25 participants learned about Bozenna Urbanowicz Gilbride and Inge Auerbacher who were born in two different countries and into two different traditions and were also forced to endure deportation, labor and concentration camps, starvation, disease, and isolation during the Second World War. Despite their dramatically different traditions and background, they were united by a common trauma: the fear experienced by children in wartime.

Children of Terror combines the stories of these two Holocaust survivors. Auerbacher, a German Jew, survived Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp located in what is now the Czech Republic, while Gilbride, Catholic Pole, survived Chemnitz, a Nazi work camp in Germany. The film focuses on the interfaith relationship these two women have built in spite of the resistance from some within their own communities to their friendship.

Following the screening, Shawn answered questions from the audience and shared personal stories related to both women in the film.

Dr. Shawn Kildea is a professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Rider University. He has produced award-winning films on topics as divergent as the Civil Rights Movement, Head Trauma in the NFL, The Revolutionary War, Cyber bullying, and the film we are presenting tonight, which is about two Holocaust survivors.

He was a William Randolph Hearst visiting scholar at the University of Alabama last year and recently completed a Fellowship at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

He resides with his wife and four children in Lawrenceville.