Film Screening | 999: The Forgotten Girls

USA 2023 | 90 min
Sunday, January 26 at 2pm
at the JCC of Greater Albuquerque

Best-selling author and historian Heather Dune Macadam has adapted her acclaimed book 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Transport to Auschwitz into a powerful documentary that sheds light on a wrenching true story. In March 1942, nearly 1,000 young Slovak Jewish women, mostly teenagers, told by their government that they were embarking on a volunteer work assignment, were instead illegally deported to Auschwitz on what was the first Jewish transport to the Nazi death camp. Rather than strictly focus on the suffering and death experienced by most of the girls, Macadam tells stories of a small group who survived against all odds, even under unimaginable conditions that lasted more than three grueling years. Macadam spent 11 years interviewing survivors and researching family and government archives to create the film. 999: The Forgotten Girls ensures that these women will no longer be a historical footnote. In addition to telling this little-known story, the film and book intends to shine a light on gender equity & women’s rights; to expose antisemitism, extremism & hate; and to promote awareness of the Holocaust and its aftermath.