| OHCC LIVING | JUNE 2026 | 35
Yiddish Club
From Film Festivals To OHCC
Winner of multiple awards at the more
than 30 film festivals where it has been
shown across the globe, the documentary
film, Four Winters, is coming to OHCC,
sponsored by the Yiddish Club on June
28. The 7 pm screening is open to all
residents and without cost.
The film recounts the story of Jewish
partisans: men and women from the
ghettoes of Eastern Europe who escaped
Nazi roundups to the concentration
camps. It mixes interviews with surviving
fighters, stock footage, and photos taken
by the partisans themselves to tell of their
survival in the forests and their guerilla
attacks on Nazis and their collaborators.
It aims to counter the often-repeated
narrative that all Jews went passively to
their deaths in the concentration camps.
The historical context of the film, while
focusing on eight surviving partisans,
is that there were more than 25,000
Jewish partisans who survived brutal
conditions, including four winters in the
forests of Poland. They had little to eat,
temporary and inadequate shelter, and
only Nazi discarded weapons to carry out
missions to disrupt German supply lines,
destroy the enemy's food reserves, free
prisoners, and attempt to interfere with
the routes to the concentration camps.
The film has moments of humor, as
well as difficult tales to hear, but does
so, according to a reviewer, by moving
the viewer "from empathy to awe," in
a way which is "poignant and deeply
ref lective." e New York Times called
it a "harrowing but spirited film" which
should be seen because it "offers an
enduring warning amid today's global
struggle with authoritarian forces."
The Yiddish Club is proud to offer
this heartfelt narrative of heroism,
determination, and resilience to all OHCC
residents. Written by Dorothy Ganz
