Winner 1996

Survivors of the Holocaust

Turner Original Productions, Steven Spielberg, in association with Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation

In making this award, the Peabody Board is recognizing the important work of two separate organizations and individuals. First, we pay tribute to the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and Turner Original Production, for creating a powerful documentary that blends vivid personal testimonies of Holocaust survivors with their family artifacts, period archival footage, original music, and other elements, to demonstrate both the heroism and the richness of Jewish life in Europe before, during, and subsequent to the horror of Nazi genocide. Especially deserving of merit are producers June Beallor and James Moll, director/editor Allan Holzman, and composer/conductor Meir Finkelstein for the Shoah Foundation; and supervising producer Jacoba Atlas, senior producer Vivian Schiller, and executive producer Pat Mitchell for Turner Original Productions. Second, and certainly of no lesser significance, the Peabody Board recognizes the personal commitment of Steven Spielberg to collect these memories, preserve the, and make them available to future generations to stand as the ultimate refutation and repudiation of those who would seek to deny or dispute the tragedy of the Holocaust. As Mr. Spielberg has said, “This project evolved because everyone wanted to tell their stories. It stands as a monument to remembering the past and always examining our present.” For creating a powerful documentary and for helping to mobilize an unprecedented international effort to perpetuate the memories of those who perished and the testimonies of those who survived, a Peabody to Survivors of the Holocaust.