Elizabeth G. Christopherson

Video and film are powerful vehicles for keeping alive the images and stories of the Holocaust to ensure that future generations can learn about this tragic time in our history. With that in mind, NJN Public Television began working in partnership with the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education more than five years ago to capture on video people who survived the Holocaust as well as those who have dedicated their professional life to the study of the Holocaust. Our camera crews visited classrooms in Germany, Poland, and Israel, and met with teachers who are teaching the Holocaust in context with tolerance, morals, and ethics in everyday life. We also accompanied the New Jersey teacher delegation to concentration camps in Poland and visited Yad Vashem in Israel.

What began as a news series for NJN News evolved into a half-hour public affairs special for On the Record, entitled Holocaust Homage. This program earned several awards including the Society of Professional Journalists New Jersey Chapter 1995 Journalism Award, for first place in Television Features, and a Society of Professional Journalists, Greater Philadelphia Chapter, for best work for Television Documentary.

We decided to use the additional footage that we shot for Holocaust Homage to create another program designed to help educators teach their students about the Holocaust in a sensitive, meaningful, and effective way. That is how the one-hour documentary "Lessons for Life" came into being. The documentary, narrated by Charles Osgood, and featuring an interview with renowned author, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, illustrates how New Jersey is helping to lead the way nationally in Holocaust education.

"Lessons for Life" reflects NJN’s long-standing commitment to serve as a convener and catalyst for positive change in our communities, and to develop alliances and partnerships that lead to broader educational and informational public interest services, provide a forum for diverse experiences and voices, and promote and celebrate our pluralistic society.