These public screenings took place in person at the Golden Scene Cinema at 2 Catchick St, Kennedy Town. Please see the list below for film descriptions.
Supported Films 2023
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Through the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre’s partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation we are bringing eye-opening AI technology to Hong Kong. This makes it possible to engage with survivor testimony in an interactive and personal way. In this academic year, students such as those form Malvern College and ESF schools can compare and contrast different survivor testimonies, conduct independent research on individual testimonies and explore the diverse backgrounds of families whose lives were destroyed in the Holocaust. We are also developing educational resources in Chinese and also have survivor testimony from the Nanjing massacre for classroom use.
Recently, HKHTC was delighted to host Dimensions in Testimony (DiT) sessions with the interactive biography of Holocaust survivor Eva Kor at Malvern College for the HKHTC Educational Event Series.
Eva Kor was one of the female Holocaust survivors to be immortalised in an interactive projection in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony – this is in partnership in Asia with the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre.
On October 7, 2023, a series of unprecedented large-scale and coordinated terrorist atrocities were perpetrated against the State of Israel. Israel finds itself in an ongoing state of war and national emergency.
Many friends and partners of the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre (HKHTC) find themselves under deadly attack.
We at the HKHTC stand in solidarity with Israel and our friends and partners there.
We hope and pray for their safety and mourn their losses.
We extend our most heartfelt sympathies to all the bereaved families who lost loved ones to these heinous and senseless terrorist attacks.
We strongly condemn terrorism.
We stand firm in the fight against antisemitism and intolerance.
We firmly reject any pretence to deny the State of Israel the right to exist and live in peace.
We welcome all efforts to bring about a peaceful resolution to a conflict which has caused so much human suffering.
The State of Israel is home to over 147,000 direct survivors of the Shoah. Many escaped the unimaginable barbarism of the Holocaust to rebuild their lives – and families – in Israel. Reports suggest that a wheel-chair bound Holocaust survivor was among the people abducted and currently held hostage.
In March 2023, HKHTC was delighted to host Poland-born Holocaust survivor Mr Pinchas Gutter, who joined us live from his home in Toronto, for the 2023 HKHTC Educational Event Series (Pinchas’ Story: A Live Conversation with Holocaust Survivor Pinchas Gutter) with a live audience both at the Jewish Community Centre as well as the Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong.
Mr Pinchas Gutter
In 1942, as ten-year-old Pinchas Gutter was deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the killing site of Maidanek and then to a series of concentration camps, he shut himself off to the terrors surrounding him and tried his best not to be noticed, to become almost invisible. But after liberation, his photographic memory would not let his past fade away, and Pinchas struggled to deal with nightmares and flashbacks.
Pinchas is the first Holocaust survivor to be immortalised in an interactive projection in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony – this is in partnership in Asia with the Hong Kong Holocaust & Tolerance Centre.
The Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre, together with the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, was pleased to host the annual United Nations Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration 2023.
Poland-born Holocaust survivor Mr Pinchas Gutter was the keynote speaker. In 1942, as ten-year-old Pinchas was deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the killing site of Maidanek and then to a series of concentration camps, he shut himself off to the terrors surrounding him and tried his best not to be noticed, to become almost invisible. But after liberation, his photographic memory would not let his past fade away, and Pinchas struggled to deal with nightmares and flashbacks.
Pinchas is the first Holocaust survivor to be immortalised in an interactive projection in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony – this is in partnership in Asia with the Hong Kong Holocaust & Tolerance Centre.
You can watch the UNHMD 2023 commemorative event here.
A Long Road to Justice
HKHTC Webinar – Commemorating the 85th Anniversary of the Atrocities at Nanjing
December 13, 2022 8:00pm HKT
You can watch the webinar video here.
To commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Rape of Nanjing, HKHTC hosted a talk by Penguin Author Sylvia Yu Friedman on Imperial Japanese military sex slavery (“comfort women”) during World War II and modern-day slavery across Asia.
A constant stream of impoverished women and girls have been, and are being, enslaved and abused in the Asia Pacific region. Slavery is not a historical issue – it’s happening today. History is repeating itself.
Through Sylvia’s work in journalism, she’s had rare access to survivors over the last two decades. Sylvia will share her personal journey of documenting the stories of these survivors across Asia for the next generation and to spur more people on to get involved in the fight against injustice.
About Sylvia Yu Friedman
Sylvia Yu Friedman is an award-winning filmmaker, Penguin Random House SEA author and a TV host. She is the author of A Long Road to Justice: Stories from the Frontlines in Asia; Silenced No More: Voices of Comfort Women, the only journalistic account of historical Japanese military sex slavery during WWII, and Heart and Soul: The Life Story of Pastor Augustus Chao. Sylvia was awarded the Global Top 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022 by The SustainabilityX® Magazine. She serves as a Member of Jury for the Asian Academy Creative Awards in the Documentary category. Currently, Sylvia is writing books and also developing various TV and film projects.
HKHTC sends its heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the tragic shootings at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We condemn this horrific act of hatred and intolerance, motivated by homophobia. This senseless attack is a poignant reminder of the necessity of tolerance education. It remains critical that we further strengthen efforts to teach the importance of non-discrimination, while promoting peaceful co-existence among peoples of different backgrounds and sexual orientations.
These platforms give students eye-opening interactive access to survivor testimonies from the Shoah, the Nanjing massacre and other atrocities. This year, we partnered with the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Hong Kong International School (HKIS), Carmel School and Malvern College to pilot these new resources for different age groups. We will bring them to many other schools including several ESF schools, German Swiss International School (GSIS) and other local colleges and universities.
In the absence of in-person visits by survivors – which will remain difficult to organise in the near future – this form of experiencing eyewitness accounts is a powerful pedagogical tool. We are also adding to these events with bespoke seminars, talks by family members of Holocaust survivors living in Hong Kong (our ‘Next Generation’ project), virtual reality exhibitions and museum tours. These interactions typically involve several hundreds of students and span multiple days.
On 9 November 2022, together with March of the Living, the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre commemorated the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht with a message of unity and hope through a unique international campaign.
Titled “Let There Be Light,” March of the Living invited individuals, institutions, and houses of worship around the world to keep their lights on during the night of November 9 as a symbol of solidarity and mutual commitment in the shared battle against antisemitism, racism, hatred, and intolerance. As part of this virtual initiative, people from all over the world were able to add their voices to the campaign. Individuals of all religions and backgrounds also wrote personal messages of hope in their own words at the campaign website here.
Meanwhile, please visit a special page on Yad Vashem’s website (click here) which features interviews, testimony, and photos on the terrible events of Kristallnacht in 1938. This year, through HKHTC’s ongoing global partnership with Yad Vashem, we will leverage our unique Holocaust education approach and reach thousands more across Asia — including educators and students in Japan, Indonesia and mainland China. As always, HKHTC continues to be very active teaching about the Holocaust in partnership with local Hong Kong schools, universities, and community organisations. Thank you again for your interest and support. We sincerely hope you can join us at our future events. Please stay tuned for more details.
