DEFYING THE NAZIS: SHARPS’ WAR” on DVD September 20

PBS Distribution announced today it is releasing “DEFYING THE NAZIS: SHARPS’ WAR”, a new documentary co-directed by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky on DVD. This is the story of a little-known but important mission by an American minister and his wife to rescue refugees and dissidents in Europe before and after the start of World War II.

“DEFYING THE NAZIS: SHARPS’ WAR” will be available on DVD September 20^th, 2016. The run time of the program is approximately 90 minutes on 1 disc, and the SRP is $24.99. The program will also be available for digital download.   

The film tells the story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, a Unitarian minister and his wife from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who left their children behind in the care of their parish and boldly committed to multiple life-threatening missions in Europe. Over two dangerous years they helped to save hundreds of imperiled political dissidents and refugees fleeing the Nazi occupation across Europe.

The story is cinematically told through the letters and journals of the Sharps, with Tom Hanks as the voice of Waitstill and Marina Goldman as the voice of Martha. It features firsthand interviews with the now adult children whom the Sharps saved, as well as leading historians, authors and Holocaust scholars, including William Schulz, Deborah Dwork, Modecai Paldiel, Ghanda DiFiglia and Yehuda Bauer.