Two Holocaust documentaries get special CT screenings. One includes a classical concert

Two Holocaust-themed documentaries are being screened in Connecticut this month, telling the story of that tragic period in world history from fresh angles.

“999: The Forgotten Girls,” about women transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, is being shown on May 16 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Mandell Jewish Community Center’s ongoing Hartford Jewish Film Festival.

“Winter Journey,” about a real-life romance between two Jewish classical musicians trying to escape the war, is being screened on May 19 at 3 p.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse alongside a classical music concert.

“Winter Journey” was made by classical radio personality Martin Goldsmith about his parents who met as members of the Jüdischer Kulturbund arts ensemble in wartime Germany. The screening of “Winter Journey” features the premiere of a new musical composition inspired by some of the documentary’s themes.

Both events have Connecticut connections behind the scenes.

Jay Heit, a University of Connecticut graduate who began his long career in movies when he was chosen to cast the extras for the feature “Promises in the Dark” shot in Hartford in the 1970s, is a producer of “999.” He said the film has sold out screenings for months on the festival circuits, including ones in Texas, New York and Florida. “We have about 20 festivals coming up,” he said, but calls the West Hartford screening “a homecoming for me.”

The documentary is written and directed by Heather Dune Macadam based on her book “999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz.” The film is “the hidden story about 999 unmarried, young Jewish women registered for government service in a supposed shoe factory and ended up in Auschwitz.”

Heit said he has been in the film business for 43 years and never worked on a documentary until now. He was invited by a friend to a Zoom meeting about the project, which was already in production, and was “so blown away” that he got heavily involved, including in its fundraising, marketing and distribution. “It’s become the most important film I’ve ever worked on,” he said.

Heit said there are so many Holocaust-themed documentaries out there that it can be hard to stand out in the field. He says “999” distinguishes itself by being “a woman’s Holocaust film” and said it feels “very contemporary.

“I’m stunned by the way people react,” he said. “A certain quietness comes out in the screenings. They seem mesmerized. There’s a special impact of seeing a film like this on a big screen.”

The documentary will likely have another local screening this fall. Heit is talking about bringing it to the University of Connecticut. “I haven’t been back there in 50 years,” he said.

In California, where Heit has lived for over 40 years, and where he raised his movie star son Jonathan Morgan Heit of “Bedtime Stories” and TV’s “Granite Flats” fame, there will be a screening of “999” at the The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

New York-based composer Paul Frucht is a Danbury who regularly returns to his home state to run the Charles Ives Music Festival. While the festival is mainly held in summertime, it is also hosting the “Inextinguishable” event May 19 at Ridgefield Playhouse featuring “Winter Journey.”

Frucht explained that the documentary is based on Martin’s book “The Inextinguishable Symphony.”

“His parents met playing in a Jews-only orchestra,” Frucht said. “The book follows them from the ‘30s through 1941 when they are able to escape.”

The book’s title comes from Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s fourth symphony, which he completed in 1916 during World War I and dubbed “The Inextinguishable Symphony.” The work became newly resonant during World War II. The Kulturbund orchestra intended to perform it, but its members were deported before they could.

“I’m Jewish myself,” Frucht continued. “I reached out to Martin last January because I wanted to turn his book into an opera, which I am now doing.” It was Goldsmith who suggested combining a screening of the documentary with a Jewish-themed music concert. The radio host even sent Frucht a list of 50 different classical pieces which might suit the bill.

Besides Frucht’s 15-minute work, there are four other pieces on the program, including works by Czechoslovakian composer Gideon Klein (who died at the Theresienstadt concentration camp) and “Elegy” by mid-20th century Russian Jewish composer Aleksandr Klein.

The musicians are violinist Giora Schmidt, cellist Julian Schwarz and pianist Marika Bournaki

“It’s really ambitious,” Frucht said. We haven’t done anything like this before.”

Frucht said that even though the work of innovative Connecticut composer Charles Ives is not a part of the concert, the event fits the mission of the Charles Ives Music Festival “to tell American stories, stories of our time.”

“People ask, ‘Why do we need new composers?,'” Frucht said. “Well, Beethoven can’t tell these stories. I’m looking at this now as an American composer. This is definitely narrative music. It tells a story from beginning to end. It’s recognizable.”

The “Inextinguishable” event, including the documentary screening, a talk between Goldsmith and Frucht, the concert and an intermission, is scheduled to last around three hours.

“The movie is extremely heavy,” Frucht said. “The talk is extremely heavy. The idea of closing with a concert is a response and a release.”

Frucht sees the word “inextinguishable” as optimistic.

“The spirit of the book and the documentary is of inextinguishable passion and joy,” he said.

“999: The Forgotten Girls” screens May 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Mandell JCC, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Tickets are $20, $15 in advance. More information is at mandelljcc.org.

The “Indistinguishable” event happens May 19 at 3 p.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge, Ridgefield. Tickets are $25-$45. ridgefieldplayhouse.org