Nancy Spielberg

Who owns history? Who has the authority to tell a narrative? These were just some of the questions close to 70 people got to ponder as they joined a Zoom fireside chat with writer and producer Nancy Spielberg, the executive producer of Who Will Write Our History (directed and produced by Roberta Grossman). The invitation-only event on Sunday, March 7, 2021, held for members of the President’s Society, was co-sponsored by the Office of Alumni Affairs and the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The film is a documentary about a secret band of Jewish journalists, scholars and activists in the Warsaw ghetto known by the code name Oyneg Shabes who archived what they believed would tell the truth of their lives against the backdrop of Nazi lies and propaganda. It is based on a 2007 book of the same name by Dr. Samuel Kassow. Dr. Kassow took a decade to write his book and Spielberg and Grossman took another seven years to produce the film, which was released in 2018. Joining Spielberg in the chat was Dr. Shay Pilnik, director of the Fish Center. Their conversation covered subjects from the incredible courage of Oyneg Shabes as they collected their secret archive under the ever-present threat of annihilation (which eventually became their fate) to how the film was received when screened in Poland to what, exactly, it is that an executive producer does.  

Dr. Shay Pilnik (top) with Nancy Spielberg

  “Most of the time,” said Spielberg, “history is written from the viewpoint of the victors, not the victims.” But when she saw the actual evidence of what Oyneg Shabes had done knowing full well they would never live to reap the rewards of their labors, Spielberg was reminded of how “Jewish people try to eke out certain kinds of happiness or blessing from everything that is dark” and was so moved by the fact that “they were able to write their own history: that was the win.” But not only was it important to bring this story to life for its own sake but also to create yet another reminder to never forget: “it's frightening to me just how disconnected the younger Jewish community is; it scares me so much that it makes me want to work even harder to collect our stories.” On behalf of everybody there, Dr. Pilnik thanked Spielberg for her work and for especially how the film “gave voice to the shattered dreams of the Jews who were victimized in the Warsaw Ghetto—we’re so privileged and honored to be with you tonight.”