Steven Pressman | |
|---|---|
 Steven Pressman (2010) | |
| Born | 1955 (age 68–69) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Journalist, filmmaker |
| Education | University of California at Berkeley |
| Spouse | Liz Perle |
Steven Pressman (born 1955) is an American documentary filmmaker, journalist, author of two books ( Outrageous Betrayal and 50 Children ), and director/producer of the documentary film 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus" and three subsequent documentary films.
Pressman was born in Los Angeles in 1955 and obtained an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. [1] He has two adult children and lived in San Francisco with his wife, writer and former book publishing executive Liz Perle, [1] [2] who died in August 2015. [3]
Throughout his career, Pressman has written for several publications including the San Francisco Daily Journal , [4] California Lawyer, [5] Daily Journal of Los Angeles, California, [6] and the Columbia Journalism Review . [7] He contributed an article on libel law in 1994, for the United States Department of State. [8] In 1993, Pressman's Outrageous Betrayal was published by St. Martin's Press and HarperCollins published his 50 Children in 2014.
Pressman began his filmmaking career by producing short videos for the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California. In 2013, he directed and produced the documentary film 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, which premiered on HBO and tells the story of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia who traveled to Nazi Germany in 1939 and, with the help of the B'rith Sholom fraternal organization, saved Jewish children in Vienna from likely death in the Holocaust by finding them new homes in Philadelphia. The heroic Krauses were the grandparents of Pressman's wife, and the film is, in part, based on the manuscript of a memoir left behind by Eleanor Kraus when she died in 1989. [9] [10] 50 Children was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award in the category of Outstanding Historical Programming in 2014.
In 2020, Pressman directed and produced the documentary film Holy Silence, which tells the story of the Vatican's actions, and inactions, during the Holocaust and in the years leading up to it. The film was shown at several film festivals and had its television premiere on PBS in November 2020. The film features actor David Strathairn, who is heard as the voice of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and actor Marco Barricelli, who is heard as the voice of Pope Pius XII.
In 2022, Pressman directed and produced the documentary film The Levys of Monticello, which tells the story of a Jewish family that owned and preserved Thomas Jefferson's home for nearly 90 years in the decades that followed Jefferson's death in 1826. The film premiered at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival in February 2022, where it received the Building Bridges Jury Prize award. The film also received the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Washington DC Jewish Film Festival in May 2022.
In 2024, Pressman directed and produced the documentary film Moses Ezekiel: Portrait of a Lost Artist, which tells the story of a Jewish-American sculptor who, among other works of art, created several statues that memorialize the Confederacy and the so-called "Lost Cause" of the American South.
Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
Shoah is a 1985 French documentary film about the Holocaust, directed by Claude Lanzmann. Over nine hours long and 11 years in the making, the film presents Lanzmann's interviews with survivors, witnesses and perpetrators during visits to German Holocaust sites across Poland, including extermination camps.
This is a selected bibliography and other resources for The Holocaust, including prominent primary sources, historical studies, notable survivor accounts and autobiographies, as well as other documentation and further hypotheses.
Gabriel Stanley "Gabe" Pressman was an American journalist who was a reporter for WNBC-TV in New York City for more than 60 years. His career spanned more than seven decades; the events he covered included the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956, the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr., the Beatles' first trip to the United States, and the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was one of the pioneers of United States television news and has been credited as the first reporter to have left the studio for on-the-scene "street reporting" at major events. Pressman was dubbed the "Dean of New York Journalism"; his numerous awards include a Peabody and 11 Emmys, and he was considered a New York icon.
The March of the Living is an annual educational program which brings students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. On Holocaust Memorial Day observed in the Jewish calendar, thousands of participants march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau.
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport is a 2000 documentary film about the British rescue operation known as the Kindertransport, which saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish and other children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Danzig by transporting them via train, boat, and plane to Great Britain. These children, or Kinder in German, were taken into foster homes and hostels in Britain, expecting eventually to be reunited with their parents. The majority of them never saw their families again. Written and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, produced by Deborah Oppenheimer, narrated by Judi Dench, and made with the cooperation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it utilized rare and extensive footage, photographs, and artifacts, and is told in the words of the child survivors, rescuers, parents, and foster parents.
Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile is a non-fiction book written by freelance journalist Steven Pressman and first published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press. The book gives an account of Werner Erhard's early life as Jack Rosenberg, his exploration of various forms of self-help techniques, and his foundation of Erhard Seminars Training "est" and later of Werner Erhard and Associates and of the est successor course, "The Forum". Pressman details the rapid financial success Erhard had with these companies, as well as controversies relating to litigation involving former participants in his courses. The work concludes by going over the impact of a March 3, 1991 60 Minutes broadcast on CBS where members of Erhard's family made allegations against him, and Erhard's decision to leave the United States.
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) was a nonprofit news organization based in San Francisco, California. In 2024, it merged with Mother Jones
The One Thousand Children (OTC) is a designation, created in 2000, which is used to refer to the approximately 1,400 Jewish children who were rescued from Nazi Germany and other Nazi-occupied or threatened European countries, and who were taken directly to the United States during the period 1934–1945. The phrase "One Thousand Children" only refers to those children who came unaccompanied and left their parents behind back in Europe. In nearly all cases, their parents were not able to escape with their children, because they could not get the necessary visas among other reasons. Later, nearly all these parents were murdered by the Nazis.
Aviva Kempner is a German-born American filmmaker. Her documentaries investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and focus on the untold stories of Jewish people. She is most well known for The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.
Anya Verkhovskaya is a Moscow-born consultant, chief operating officer, Expert Witness, and Human Rights Activist. She is the founder of Class Experts Group, LLC. and former Managing Director of DRRT. Verkhovskaya currently serves as the President of Class Experts Group, LLC.
Crime After Crime is a 2011 award-winning documentary film directed by Yoav Potash about the case of Deborah Peagler, an incarcerated victim of domestic violence whose case was taken up by pro bono attorneys through The California Habeas Project.
Scott Goldstein is a writer, producer, and director based in Los Angeles. He has achieved success in broadcast journalism, prime time entertainment, interactive educational & museum exhibits and documentaries. He is the winner of two Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.
Pierre Sauvage is a French-American documentary filmmaker and lecturer, who was a child survivor of the Holocaust. Described by Tablet Magazine as "a filmmaker of rare moral perception."
Yoav Potash is a writer and filmmaker whose works include the documentaries Crime After Crime and Food Stamped.
Sławomir Grünberg is a Polish-born naturalized American documentary producer, director and cameraman.
50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, originally known as To Save a Life, is a 2013 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Steven Pressman. It was first shown on HBO in April 2013.
Roberta Grossman is an American filmmaker. Her documentaries range from social justice inquiries to historical subjects with a focus on Jewish history.
Liz Perle was an American publishing executive, writer, and co-founder and editor-in-chief of the nonprofit Common Sense Media.
Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were an American couple known for rescuing 50 Jewish children prior to the beginning of World War II.
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