Launch flix, a production and digital media company, today announced that the oldest Holocaust museum in the states, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, has become their new fiscal sponsor for a special Holocaust film project. This relationship is timely as launch flix is gearing up to shoot a short film, Bashert, next month, from a book that they had optioned from Survivor, Henry Oertelt. Oertelt’s grand daughter, Dr. Corey Samuels will act as associate producer on the short.
Bashert, which means “meant to be” in Yiddish, is about a story that happened after Henry Oertelt immigrated to Minnesota from Berlin. In the 1950’s he attended a party where he met an American soldier who had been in the exact place, at the same time of his liberation from a three-day death march. This exchange is documented in Oertelt’s life story.
Oertelt’s award-winning book is called An Unbroken Chain, My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust. Born in Berlin Germany, of Jewish faith, Heinz (Henry) Oertelt was twelve years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. Oertelt died earlier this year at age ninety on January 27, the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, and the anniversary of the day Auschwitz was liberated. One year later, January 27, 2012, the museum is also planning an elaborate community event called the “Mapping Auschwitz Project.”
Henry Oertelt was liberated by General Patton’s Third Army during the Flossenburg Death March in April, 1943. He arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1949 and spent 40 years speaking about his experiences and the importance of tolerance, political involvement, and confronting hatred. Oertelt was past chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council and Holocaust education committee. He was recipient of the JCRC’s “Volunteer of the Year” award, as well as the distinguished “Eleven Who Care” honor from KARE 11 TV in Minnesota in May, 2006. Additionally, the city of St. Paul, Minnesota proclaimed “Henry A. Oertelt Day” on April 23, 2006. Oertelt participated in Stephen Spielberg’s University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education in Los Angeles, California. In 2005 Stephen Spielberg’s Shoah Visual History Foundation made Henry’s story one of five selected survivor testimonials featured on their Web exhibit from among over 55,000 collected stories.
Additionally, Henry’s half brother, ninety-six year old Maine resident, Kurt Messerschmidt, is currently featured in the first chapter of a new teacher’s curriculum called Echoes and Reflections that was recently put out by the Anti Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation and Yad VaShem. You can learn more about the brothers and their story at http://6mfor6m.org.
Launch flix has been fundraising and developing a feature film with a $6 million total budget based on the life story of Holocaust survivor and author Henry A. Oertelt. Since they were raising $6 million dollars, the filmmakers created a grassroots campaign called $6M for 6M. The concept was that even if they received a dollar per person, they could reach six million people with their story and raise awareness for Holocaust education at the same time.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
