WCDSB VLC: Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Number On Great-Grandpa's Arm

Grades: 6-12     Time: 19 minutes

Producer: HBO

Directed and produced by seven-time Emmy® Award winner Amy Schatz, and featuring animation from award winning artist Jeff Scher, this documentary shines a light on the tender relationship between an inquisitive American boy and his great-grandfather, a Polish-born Jew who lost both his parents to the Nazis, but was able to survive Auschwitz and make his way to America at the end of WWII. When 10-year-old Elliott asks his 90-year-old great-grandfather Jack about the number tattooed on his arm, the boy’s question sparks an intimate conversation about Jack’s life that embraces happy memories of childhood in Poland, the loss of his family, surviving the concentration camps, and finding a good and new life in America. Interwoven with haunting historical footage, photos, and hand-painted watercolor animation by Jeff Scher, The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm is both a heartbreaking story of Jewish life in Eastern Europe before and during the Holocaust, and a heartwarming story of a bond that reaches across generations. An introduction to the Holocaust for children, this gentle yet powerful family film centers on Elliott's love for his beloved great-grandfather and his heartfelt wish to pass to future generations Jack’s memories and lessons from that terrible time, telling a story that must be told while survivors still remain to tell it.