# Rescuers Last Chance Project

The Rescuers Last Chance Project is being produced by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Michael W. King in association with USC/Shoah Foundation and the Andrew J. and Joyce D. Mandell Family Foundation. King and Joyce D. Mandell, creators and producers of the 2011 award-winning documentary The Rescuers featuring renowned historian Sir Martin Gilbert, lead this new project.

## Synopsis

The Rescuers explores the little-known stories of diplomats who facilitated the survival of those persecuted during the Holocaust. We are currently working to identify those associated with—be they survivors or family members—diplomats who’ve been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. We are in a race against time to collect these stories of service. It is our “last chance” to document first-hand accounts of this chapter of the 20th century’s most indelible events.
This project will contribute to the Andrew J. and Joyce D. Mandell Rescuers Collection, the Andrew J. & Joyce D. Mandell Family Foundation, and the USC/Shoah Foundation for Holocaust Education, Media Arts, and Cultural History.

## Development

Michael W. King was approached in 2021 by the USC Shoah Foundation for the survivor testimonies from ‘The Rescuers’ for their Visual History Archive. In building the testimonies for the Andrew J. and Joyce D. Mandell International Rescuers Collection, King decided to expand his research efforts to identify additional survivors and relatives to document the stories of additional diplomats with Righteous Among the Nations status. With that developed “The Rescuer Last Chance Project,” a ‘race against time’ to identify the people who knew the remaining diplomats and Holocaust survivors who benefited from their assistance, to tell those stories.

## Filming

Across a span of two years, filming commenced in July of 2022 in Israel. Over the course of three months filming of survivors, second generation, and family members of the Righteous was done across Israel, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, Spain, and Portugal. In March of 2023, time was split between filming in Ecuador, the country of Righteous Manuel Antonio Munoz Borrero, and Brazil, the country of Righteous Aracy De Carvalho. Both family members and survivors, and 2nd gen were interviewed during this time. During July of 2023, production time was spent in Vancouver filming reenactments, and 2nd generation and survivor interviews. From there, filming was done on the other side of Canada, in Toronto, filming survivors and 2nd generation. In the starting months of 2024, filming was done in Phoenix, Arizona, Boca Raton, Florida, and Brooklyn, New York of family members of the Righteous and also of 2nd generation and survivors rescued by these diplomats. Production concluded on November 22nd with the filming of reenactments in Budapest, Hungary and the filming of the granddaughter of Righteous Diplomat, Carl Lutz.

## 10th Anniversary screening

On Thursday, September 22nd, 2022, a remastered version of The Rescuers was shown for one night only at The Mandell JCC to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the film’s release. The panel for the post-film discussion featured Debórah Dwork, Ph.D., Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity The Graduate Center – City University of New York; Dr. Stephanie Fagin-Jones, clinical psychologist, Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University Teachers College, and a Holocaust heroism science scholar; Joel N. Lohr, Ph.D., President of Hartford International University for Religion and Peace; and Dr. Sylvia Smoller, Scientist, writer and Holocaust Survivor. The panel was moderated by Avinoam J. Patt, Ph.D. , The Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut.

## Team

| Name | Description |
| Michael W. King | Producer/Director |
| Joyce D. Mandell | Executive Producer/Producer |
| Irena Steinfeldt | Historian/Narrator |
| Dr. Andrée Lotey | Interviewer |
| Tarina Van Den Driessche | Director of Photography |
| George Artope | Editor |
| Melissa Holt | 2nd Unit DP |
| Robin Uriel Russin | Associate Producer/Writer |
| Christopher Melendrez | Assistant to the Producer |
| Frank E. Lugo III | Assistant Editor |

## Diplomats

| Aracy de Carvalho | Brazil |
| Carl Lutz | Switzerland |
| Chiune Sugihara | Japan |
| Dr. Aristides De Sousa Mendes | Portugal |
| Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero | Ecuador |
| Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz | Germany |
| Hiram Bingham, IV | Usa |
| Jan Zwartendijk | Netherlands |
| Per Anger | Sweden |
| Princess Alice of Battenberg | United Kingdom |
| Raoul Wallenberg | Portugal |
| Selahattin Ülkümen | Turkey |
| Varian Fry | Usa |