Voices on Antisemitism: Recent Episodes
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Voices on Antisemitism, a production of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, features a broad range of perspectives about antisemitism and hatred today.
Katharina von Schnurbein is the European Commission’s Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism. Von Schnurbein works with EU Member States, the European Parliament, civil society organizations, and academia to strengthen policy responses to antisemitism, as well as to hate crimes and discrimination more broadly.
Born in Iran, Maziar Bahari is a journalist, filmmaker, and human rights activist. He has made two films on the Holocaust: one about the refugees aboard the St. Louis and, most recently, about Iranian diplomat Abdol Hossein Sardari, who saved Jews in occupied France. Bahari was imprisoned by the Iranian government from June to October 2009.
Sarah Wildman is a journalist and the author of Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind. In her book, Wildman documents a journey to find her grandfather’s girlfriend Valy Scheftel, who stayed behind in Vienna in 1938 when he immigrated to America. The book is a detailed portrait of one young woman’s experience during the Holocaust, but also a deliberation about this generation’s role in preserving memory.
As a child of survivors, Raya Kalisman first experienced the Holocaust as a family tragedy, and a deeply personal narrative. As a young teacher, she was among the first generation to bring Holocaust studies to the classroom, as a historical narrative for Israeli students. But ultimately, Kalisman began to view the Holocaust as human narrative to be shared and studied across cultures. And in 1995, she founded the Center for Humanistic Education at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in Israel.
After a deadly attack on a Copenhagen synagogue in 2015, Niddal El-Jabri felt compelled to act. Inspired by expressions of non-violent solidarity happening as part of the Arab Spring, El-Jabri decided to organize a “peace ring” around the synagogue.
James Loeffler is an associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Virginia. He is a trained pianist, musicologist, and specialist on Jewish classical music. He serves as scholar-in-residence at Pro Musica Hebraica in Washington, DC, and has curated concerts at the Kennedy Center.
Edward Serotta founded Centropa in 2000 to preserve memories of Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. Centropa has trained thousands of schoolteachers to bring this material into classrooms from Gastonia, North Carolina, to Vilnius, Lithuania. A strong believer in the power of personal narrative, Serotta hopes that Centropa stories will resonate with new generations, who may never have the opportunity to engage with a survivor in person.
Sara Lipton is a professor of history at SUNY Stony Brook. In her book Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography, Lipton traces the development and evolution of antisemitic images in Christian art. She explores the way negative imagery can actually fuel a cultural shift toward hatred.
Norman Eisen became known as the “ethics czar” through his work as Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform under President Obama. In 2011, Eisen was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. And today he tells the story of the Ambassador’s residence in Prague, which echoes both Eisen’s personal family history and the arc of twentieth-century history.
When he was only in his mid-twenties, Ilja Sichrovsky started the Muslim Jewish Conference to create a space for Muslims and Jews to discuss stereotypes, misconceptions, and issues that affect both communities. Sichrovsky says that real change begins with listening, and he encourages participants to surrender their talking points and soundbites.
Alan Kraut is University Professor of History at American University. He is a specialist in U.S. immigration and ethnic history, and the author of Silent Travellers: Germs, Genes, and the "Immigrant Menace." Kraut offers some context for the politics of fear and xenophobia that often accompany immigration debates.
Dervis Hizarci believes that openness to dialogue is key to his work as an educator. First at the Jewish Museum Berlin and now with KIgA, the Kreuzberger Initiative against Antisemitism, Hizarci works to confront hatred and ignorance, which can breed radicalism and violence.
Despina Stratigakos is an architectural historian at the University at Buffalo. Her recent book Hitler at Home examines the efforts of Hitler's interior designer Gerdy Troost to cultivate Hitler's image as both a refined statesman and a man of the people.
Erica Lehrer founded the Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence at Concordia University. In 2013, she curated “Souvenir, Talisman, Toy,” an exhibition of Polish-made figurines depicting Jews. And she is the author of Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places.
Sam Ponczak was only two years old when World War II broke out in Poland, and for many years he didn’t think of himself as a Holocaust survivor. But later in life, when asked to speak to schoolchildren about his experiences, Ponczak began to embrace his story of survival as part of the important narrative of the Holocaust.
Miriam Isaacs was born to Holocaust survivors in a displaced persons camp in Germany. Trained as a linguist, she taught Yiddish for many years at the University of Maryland. More recently, she has been translating the Stonehill Jewish Song Collection, housed here at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Floriane Hohenberg worked for many years for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on human rights and diversity issues and especially on antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia. Today, she helps governments to collect data and statistics on antisemitism and to develop teaching materials to confront it.
As a young man at the American University of Beirut in the 1960s, Mohammed Dajani was a student activist and a member of Fatah, fighting for Palestinian liberation. But his hardline views softened after the death of his parents, who were each, in turn, cared for by Israeli doctors and emergency personnel. Dajani has evolved into a voice of moderation, working to end conflict through sharing personal narratives. But it is not easy to be a champion of moderation.
Daniel Owen is a photojournalist who spent two years documenting the life, culture, and celebrations of the Jewish community of Oradea, Romania. The Jewish population there has dwindled from a high of 30,000 in the 1940s—or one third of the population of the city—to only a few hundred today.
Robert Örell got involved with the Swedish white power movement in his early teens. Now he works as director of Exit Sweden, the very organization that helped him leave neo-Nazism behind. Since 1998, Exit has helped hundreds separate from white supremacist gangs. Today, they are looking into ways their work might apply to other extremist organizations, including ISIS, religious cults, and criminal gangs.
Maud Mandel is a professor of history and Judaic studies, as well as the Dean of the College at Brown University. She wrote a book called Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict, and here she offers some context for the January 2015 shootings in Paris, at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket.
Mo Asumang is a German filmmaker who confronts racism and antisemitism in the most literal way: she talks with people, face to face. She attends nationalist parades and anti-immigration rallies in Germany. She meets with white supremacists in the American South. She walks up to strangers with her camera crew and just begins a conversation.
A few years ago, Glenn Kurtz discovered a reel of film in the closet of his parents' home in Florida. Only three minutes long, the footage shows his grandfather's hometown of Nasielsk, Poland, in 1938. The clip has become surprisingly important—both historically and personally.
Margit Meissner decided—at the age of 80—that it was time to write a book about her experience as a Holocaust survivor. In the 12 years since, she has shared her story with many visitors to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she now volunteers as a guide.
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Imam Khalid Latif are co-founders of the ‘Of Many’ Institute for Multifaith Leadership at New York University. They teach a course together and lead service trips to cultivate cooperation and dialogue among students from different faiths.
Wendy Lower is the John K. Roth Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College. Her book Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields examines how ordinary women participated in the Holocaust, and also how their participation has been systematically downplayed since the war.
Gregory Spinner began reading comics as a kid, but discovered serious and profound stories in graphic art that are anything but childish. At Skidmore College, he teaches graphic novels in his courses, and recently co-curated an exhibit there with Rachel Seligman called: “Graphic Jews: Negotiating Identity in Sequential Art.” Today, Spinner talks with us about the watershed comic Maus, and the evolving expression of Jewish identity through comics.
David Nirenberg is a professor of history at the University of Chicago. His book Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition examines the durability and usage of anti-Jewish sentiments throughout history.
Iván Fischer has received a lot of attention around the world for his recent opera "The Red Heifer," based on a 19th-century blood libel case. The opera has been polarizing in Hungary, where antisemitism and anti-Roma sentiments are on the rise.
Dr. Kavian Milani is a practicing member of the Baha'i faith, a physician, and an advocate for human rights. When Milani was growing up in Iran, his father was killed by the regime because of his faith. Today Milani draws on the Baha'i ideals to fight tyranny and to break the cycle of divide and conquer that is at the heart of all dangerous regimes, including the Nazi regime.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as chief rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth for 22 years. Now a visiting professor at several universities in the United States and Britain, Sacks discusses the ways in which antisemitism has mutated and evolved over time.
Monika Schwarz-Friesel is a professor of linguistics at the Technical University Berlin. Her recent study---conducted with historian Yehuda Reinharz of Brandeis University---examines thousands of recent letters and emails sent to the Central Council of Jews in Germany and to the Israeli Embassy in Berlin. Their research reveals a surprising level of antisemitism among educated Germans.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Petra Gelbart is a granddaughter of Romani Holocaust survivors. An ethnomusicologist, musician, and singer, Gelbart uses both her research and her voice to educate and advocate for Holocaust remembrance of Romani victims.
Robert Edsel's book The Monuments Men is about a group of Allied men and women tasked with saving the cultural and artistic treasures of Europe. Now a Hollywood film, Edsel's book details the extraordinary scale of Hitler's theft, alongside the calculated destruction of Jewish art and culture.
Professor Ho-Keun Choi was among the first in South Korea to teach and write about the Holocaust. As a graduate student in Germany, Choi began to view Holocaust education as a way for South Koreans to deal with the tragedies of the Korean War and Japanese rule.
In May 2012, the Golden Dawn party received nearly 7% of the popular vote in Greece and gained a toehold in the Parliament. Leveraging fears about the country's ongoing economic crisis and unemployment, Golden Dawn used anti-immigrant and anti-minority rhetoric to gain votes. As a representative of the Greek delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Paul Hagouel is concerned about the rise of rightist parties in governments across Europe.
We're surrounded by propaganda all the time: some of it benign, some of it dangerous. Propaganda was used to devastating effect during the Holocaust and it's worth studying to understand why and how we are vulnerable to propaganda in our everyday lives. This episode is a collage of people discussing their own relationship to propaganda, and the ways in which they guard against it
Turkish scholar Pinar Dost-Niyego faces some hurdles when teaching the Holocaust in Istanbul—including Turkey's own history of antisemitism and anti-minority laws. But Dost-Niyego sees change in her students as they begin to connect with the personal stories of Holocaust victims.
Diana Dumitru found an incredible example of how antisemitism can be dismantled: two territories in Eastern Europe, separated only by a river, shared a legacy of pogroms and violence against Jews. But after WWI, one territory continued a policy of state-sponsored antisemitism, while the other began a policy of integration and acceptance.
Shankar Vedantam has spent a lot of time thinking about the links between science and human behavior. His recent book, The Hidden Brain, challenges us to consider the unconscious biases we may carry, and the ways they steer our behavior.
Aomar Boum returned to his native Morocco to study the trend of rising antisemitism there. He conducted interviews with four generations of Muslim Moroccans about their feelings toward Jews. What he found is a noticeable shift toward less interaction and greater hostility.
After his grandmother’s death, Arnon Goldfinger stumbled upon evidence of a long-term friendship between his Jewish grandparents and a Nazi officer. In his documentary The Flat, he tries to make sense of this relationship, exploring how silence resides in both victims and perpetrators, and how, sometimes, it can shape a family history.
Since the Holocaust, social psychologists have asked: Why do people succumb to evil? Theories point to peer pressure and the power of conformity. But Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher reject the idea that people become automatons in a group. Their mock-prison study reveals something more complex about the ways individuals sign on to a brutal agenda.
In 2005, Stephen Mills created a dance based on the life of Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren. The work would grow into a community-wide endeavor known as Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project. A collaboration of artists, institutions, and educators, the work has had far-reaching effects on both audiences and creators.
Hasan Sarbakhshian and Parvaneh Vahidmanesh gathered stories and photographs from Iran's dwindling Jewish population for their book Iranian Jews. The effort would eventually cause them to flee Iran, their homeland, for the United States.
Prof. Kathleen Blee has written several books about racism and the Ku Klux Klan. Blee looks in particular at ways the KKK was able to infiltrate mainstream America in the 1920s, by focusing its membership efforts on moderates, not extremists—a strategy repeated by the Nazis shortly thereafter.
Iranian-born Rita Jahanforuz is one of the biggest pop stars in Israel. With the release of her recent album, sung almost entirely in her native Farsi, Rita is developing a fan base in Iran as well, despite the fact that her music is banned there. Although she does not consider herself a political person, Rita is proof that individuals can challenge a system of state-sponsored antisemitism by reaching across cultural boundaries.
Edward Linenthal believes memorials serve a complex and important role in society, to help us mourn and remember, but also to encourage a dynamic engagement with history.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Colbert King has a reputation for direct and plainspoken commentaries. In a recent column, King expressed frustration with what he calls the "tepid" international response to state-sponsored antisemitism in Iran.
Jamel Bettaieb teaches German to high-school students, which affords him an opportunity that is rare in Tunisia: to teach about the Holocaust. An active participant in Tunisia's recent revolution, Bettaieb strives to be an agent of change in the Muslim world, pushing back against propaganda, antisemitism, and silence about the Holocaust.
Jeremy Waldron calls the topic of hate speech a “hardy perennial” and one we must continue to revisit. In his book The Harm in Hate Speech, Waldron examines First Amendment legal protections and considers the damage inflicted on society by hate speech.
Born in Pakistan and a practicing Muslim, Mehnaz Afridi has studied Judaism and Jewish history, interviewed Holocaust survivors, and visited Dachau to pay respect and pray. Now she works to inspire her students to take interest in other faiths and cultures as well.
In his book, Fariborz Mokhtari brings to light the story of Abdol Hossein Sardari, sometimes called "the Iranian Schindler" for his efforts to save Jews during World War II. Mokhtari hopes to encourage new conversations about the Holocaust and about Iran.
Maya Benton is working to establish the Roman Vishniac Archive at the International Center of Photography. Vishniac's photos include some of the most well-known images of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The archive also includes thousands of unpublished images that show the tremendous diversity of prewar Jewish life, as well as the rise of Nazi power in Berlin.
In her signature poem "Hebrew Mamita," Vanessa Hidary addresses antisemitic stereotypes in her direct, no-nonsense style. In this piece, she unpacks insult-as-compliment antisemitism, and the subtle ways that oppression can get under your skin.
In the wake of his father's murder by a white supremacist at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Pardeep Kaleka has become a powerful voice against hate crime and violence. Kaleka helped found the organization Serve 2 Unite, which brings together young people from different religious and cultural backgrounds.
Dr. Michael Grodin has written about Nazi doctors and the ways patients were systematically dehumanized and tortured. He believes we need to beware of the subtle ways that medical ethics can be subverted in the name of research and public health.
As frontman for the multi-platinum hard-rock band Disturbed, David Draiman writes songs that are often personal and political. As a kid, he was drawn into occasional fistfights over anti-Jewish remarks. As an adult, he addresses Holocaust denial and antisemitism in his song "Never Again."
Although Vidal Sassoon has stopped cutting hair himself—he jokes that no one wants an 84-year-old stylist—he maintains a strong pride in his Jewish identity, a robust sense of political activism, and a vigilance toward antisemitism.
During his career, Kahn has produced The Merchant of Venice three times. It is among the most popular and the most contentious of Shakespeare's plays, with ever-evolving relevance for modern audiences.
In many of his novels, Serbian-Jewish author David Albahari challenges readers to re-examine history. Though widely published around the world, Albahari's work is not always popular in his native country, where antisemitism persists.
Sir Ben Kingsley has played key roles in several films about the Holocaust, including Simon Wiesenthal, Itzhak Stern, and Otto Frank. Kingsley believes that it is important to confront tragedy in film and art, and that as an actor he is able to be both storyteller and witness.
An early adopter of computer culture, Mike Godwin noticed in online discussions an abundance of glib comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis. In response, he coined Godwin's Law, a modern adage intended to promote more thoughtful dialogue.
In his book, The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, Stephen Norwood looks at the ways many American universities actively or passively helped to legitimize Nazi Germany. In their failure to take a stand against antisemitism, Norwood sees parallels in academia today.
The history of Jews in the United States, as well as her own life experiences, have demonstrated for Hannah Rosenthal that coalition building is critical to affecting change around the world.
As a young man, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch was drafted into the Army, where in basic training he encountered antisemitism for the first time. Many years later, that encounter continues to resonate.
Sarah Jones is well known for her one-person Broadway show Bridge & Tunnel, in which she delivers monologues from fourteen characters of different ages and cultural backgrounds. Jones has dedicated her work to bringing people together through shared stories.
In his book Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, Frank Meeink describes with brutal honesty his descent into bigotry and violence as a teenage neo-Nazi. Through some surprising personal encounters, Meeink came to reject his beliefs and become an advocate for tolerance and diversity.
What Would You Do? captures the reactions of ordinary people to real-life dilemmas. While Rossen has sometimes been shocked by bigotry or ambivalence, she has also been inspired by people who take action.
Rex Bloomstein has made many films about Jewish history and the Holocaust, including perhaps the best-known film on antisemitism, The Longest Hatred. Bloomstein's recent film, KZ, presents a modern look at the legacy of the Holocaust.
Renee Hobbs is founder of the Media Education Lab at Temple University. Hobbs works to promote media literacy and critical thinking about information sources-which can be a powerful tool against hate speech and Holocaust denial.
Imam Mohamed Magid takes a strong stand against antisemitism and Holocaust denial and believes it's important for other Muslim leaders to do so as well.
Early in Robert Corrigan’s tenure as president of San Francisco State University, students posted a mural on campus that included antisemitic symbols. Corrigan took a strong stand against the hateful imagery, and had the mural sandblasted off. As a result of that turmoil—and the persistence of antisemitism on university campuses—Corrigan decided that San Francisco State should have a concrete plan for addressing such incidents when they occur.
Racism and antisemitism have, unfortunately, been part of soccer culture for many decades. As a black player on predominantly white British teams, Garth Crooks experienced the problem firsthand, and now strives to purge the sport of prejudice and hate.
As a young man in the South, Kevin Gover witnessed prejudice of all kinds, including antisemitism. Today, in his office across the National Mall from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Gover reflects on some of the shared goals and challenges for Jews and Native Americans.
Diego Portillo Mazal was born in Argentina and lived all over the world before settling in Boston. As a founding member of the Latino-Jewish Roundtable, Portillo Mazal works to bring Jews and Latinos together to overcome prejudice and find common ground.
One year ago this month, Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns died heroically in the line of duty, protecting visitors and staff at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum from an avowed antisemite, Holocaust denier, and racist. Special Police Officer David Reynolds worked alongside Officer Johns. Reynolds continues to welcome and protect people at the Museum as he has for over a decade. Reynolds feels his role is important because of the antisemitism, racism, and bigotry that still exist in the world.
Louise Gruner Gans' experiences with prejudice have influenced her work as a lawyer and as a judge, and have reminded her to keep a human perspective on the law.
Ray Allen has visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum several times since it opened; each time he brings a different friend, teammate, or coach. The Museum, Allen says, has a message for everyone and lessons about prejudice that are universally relevant.
Actor Ralph Fiennes has appeared in a number of films about the Holocaust. In this podcast, he talks with journalist Bob Woodward about his role as SS officer Amon Goeth in the Oscar-winning film Schindler's List.
Comedian Judy Gold is known for pushing boundaries with her humor. In her stand-up and her stage show titled "25 Questions for a Jewish Mother," Gold makes jokes about her family and her identity as a Jew and a lesbian. Humor, Gold says, can promote dialogue and be a way to address prejudice, antisemitism, and even terrible tragedy.
As Chief of Police in Washington DC, Charles Ramsey developed a training program for law enforcement officers in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Anti-Defamation League. Now in its eleventh year, the program examines the history of the Holocaust in order to help officers reflect on their personal and professional responsibilities.
At the age of 50, Rabbi Gila Ruskin left her pulpit position to teach Jewish studies at an urban-Baltimore Catholic school with a historically African American student body. The experience led Ruskin to appreciate the many ways that Jews and African Americans can come together through a shared history of oppression and, she says, a commitment to prophetic ideals.
Mazal "Mali" Aklum has learned well the importance of remembering history. Her parents were among the first wave of Ethiopian Jews to flee their country and settle in Israel in the 1980s. As a member of this little-known minority, whose history is often overlooked, Aklum has a unique perspective on the breadth of Jewish identity and the importance of preserving memory.
As a researcher for Microsoft and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, danah boyd looks at how young people interact with social network sites, like Facebook and MySpace. Her research has led her to develop interesting observations about the nature of hate speech on the internet and tactics for combating it.
Professor Xu Xin has spent 40 years at Nanjing University—as an undergrad, a grad student, and currently as director of the Glazer Institute of Jewish Studies. He teaches new generations of Chinese students about Jewish history, culture, and the lessons of the Holocaust.
Through her participation in a youth program at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Navila Rashid says she became a better Muslim. Rashid believes her encounters at the Museum gave her courage to continue on her own spiritual journey and compassion for people of other faiths.
Although there is not a single Jewish person living in the area British Member of Parliament John Mann represents, he believes it absolutely proper that he serves as chair of the British Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism.
Born in Transylvania just after the Holocaust, Codrescu immigrated to the United States as a teenager and eventually settled in New Orleans. Through the evolution of his now-famous surname, Codrescu reveals something about his own identity as a Jew, a poet, and an immigrant.
As Germany's Justice Minister, Brigitte Zypries is responsible for upholding justice, rights, and democracy in her country. Zypries explains why her government passed a law making Holocaust denial a criminal offense and why that law is important.
In 1940, Tracy Strong left the relative safety of America to help students displaced by the war in Europe to continue their studies. While uncomfortable with the title "hero," Strong's efforts to sustain an educational safe haven ultimately proved life saving for many young Jews.
As a senior in high school, Rebecca Dupas took part in a program sponsored by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, called Bringing the Lessons Home. The program teaches young people about the Holocaust, so that they can help spread understanding about the dangers of hatred and prejudice.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum mourns the tragic death of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who died heroically in the line of duty on June 10, 2009, protecting our visitors and staff. This episode of Voices on Antisemitism with Scott Simon ran originally on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday.
Sadia Shepard's book The Girl from Foreign documents her travels to India to connect with the tiny Jewish community there and to unlock her family's history. The trip and the book have given her unique insights into the relationships among Jews, Muslims, and Hindus in India.
Gregory Gordon helped to prosecute the landmark "media" cases in Rwanda–where hate speech, broadcast over the radio, was directly linked to the genocide of the Tutsi people. Gordon believes that the lessons learned in Rwanda could be applied in Iran and elsewhere, to prevent these incitement tactics from taking hold.
Samia Essabaa was born in France to Moroccan and Tunisian parents. A Muslim, shaped by both Arabic and French culture, Essabaa often feels she can relate to her students, many of whom are from Africa and the Caribbean. A believer in hands-on learning, she takes her classes to Auschwitz, where they learn not only about history, but about humanity and community.
In 1996, David Pilgrim established the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Michigan. As the university's Chief Diversity Officer and a professor of sociology, one of Pilgrim's goals is to use objects of intolerance to teach about tolerance.
Sayana Ser was born in Cambodia in 1981, two years after the fall of dictator Pol Pot. Today, Ser works to help her country heal from that genocide. As part of that effort, Ser decided to translate The Diary of Anne Frank into her native language of Khmer.
Since 1987, Christopher Leighton has served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. A Presbyterian minister, Leighton is deeply committed to disarming religious hatred and establishing models of interfaith understanding.
Actor Daniel Craig is perhaps most famous for his portrayal of Agent 007 in the James Bond movies. But his latest film, Defiance, is based on the true story of the Bielski brothers, who led a resistance against the Nazis during the Second World War.