‘Last Flight of Petr Ginz’ documentary screening to feature director’s talk

The Last Flight of Petr Ginz, an award-winning film documenting the life of a young Holocaust victim who left behind five novels, more than 150 drawings and paintings, short stories, a diary and an underground magazine before he died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, will be screened Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall.

The screening of “The Last Flight of Petr Ginz” is part of the “Witnessing to History” series presented by Chapman University’s Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education. A discussion with the co-director Sandra Dickson will follow. The screening is free and open to the public.

Combining animation, art, and live action, along with historic photographs and film, this extraordinary documentary is as original as Petr himself. It celebrates how a boy’s wonder and creative expression could soar beyond ghetto walls to represent the best of what makes us human.

Much of Petr’s story was unknown until the 2003 Columbia space shuttle tragedy. Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, carried with him into space Petr’s drawing, Moon Landscape. The publicity surrounding the flight and its explosion led to the discovery of Petr’s diary and additional artwork and short stories in a Prague attic.