Empathy is an Action
UnBroken is more than a documentary film — it is an invitation to remember, to feel and to choose who we become in the face of injustice. Through the extraordinary true story of the Weber siblings — the only known group of seven Jewish siblings to both survive Nazi Germany and emigrate together — UnBroken sparks urgent conversations about empathy, memory and moral responsibility.
Our Impact Campaign is designed to transform viewing into action — empowering educators, students and communities to engage deeply with the film’s themes and apply them to the world we live in today. Audiences are invited to examine humanity at its most fragile and most courageous, as we consider how our stories shape the choices we make today.
Integrate Learning
Use standards-aligned resources that deepen understanding of history, democracy and media literacy, while supporting critical thinking, discussion and cross-disciplinary instruction.
Build the Archive
Support inquiry-based learning by creating community archives through empathy mapping, oral histories, zines and archival research as a form of activism. Learners engage with primary source documents and explore sonic representation through music, using approaches that scale from middle school classrooms to doctoral study.
Become an Upstander
Empower educators to help learners translate reflection into action through civic engagement, community care and advocacy, fostering meaningful, everyday acts of courage inside and beyond the classroom.
At the heart of the campaign is the UnBroken Learning Guide, developed in partnership with Journeys in Film.
Featured Impact Modules
Everyday Courage: The Impact of Upstanders
Explore what motivates people to act — and how small choices can create meaningful change.
The Power of Storykeeping & Archival Activism
Learn how preserving stories, photographs, letters and oral histories combats erasure and honors lived experience.
Empathy as a Practice: Listening, Reflecting, Acting
Build empathic skills through creative engagement, guided discussion and meditative reflection.
Preserving Memory Through Mixed Media
Examine how film, animation, archival research, music and oral testimony work together to tell stories responsibly and powerfully.
Includes a PPR (public performance rights) educational license for one, five or ten schools, full film digital download, comprehensive educator learning guide and five accompanying Vimeo chapters of UnBroken.
WHY
NOW?
Director Beth Lane decided to make UnBroken in the summer of 2017.
Three weeks later, white supremacists stormed the small town of Charlottesville, VA. The local and federal governments could have prevented the melee. They did not. They also did not emphatically denounce the many travesties that followed.
Still, antisemitism was not raging until October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel in unprecedented savagery. 24 hours after those attacks, UnBroken, synchronistically, had its World Premiere at The Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana.
One week later, our film won Best Documentary Feature Premiere.
Over 50 cities later, a nationwide release in NYC & LA, UnBroken launched on NETFLIX in North America on April 23rd, 2025. To date, our film has been seen by over 1.5 million viewers nationwide. The response was immediate and overwhelming — because UnBroken is not just an historical film. It is a film that speaks to the heart of our shared humanity.
How is it that today we are once again talking about hiding people, just as the Schmidts had to hide my family from fascism? The need for education, moral courage and vigilance has never been more urgent.
Be an Upstander
As antisemitism, racism and indifference continue to rise, meaningful Holocaust education is more urgent than ever — yet access and implementation remain uneven.
Our Impact Campaign Will:
UnBroken, paired with its Educator Toolkit, offers an accessible way to explore the lived experience of children during genocide, the moral choices faced by victims and rescuers, and the lasting consequences of prejudice. Through guided discussion and reflection, storytelling becomes a bridge — using art to foster understanding, while understanding strengthens the muscles of empathy & compassion.
UnBroken asks:
When faced with injustice, who do you become?
What does it mean to be an upstander rather than a bystander?
How do memory, empathy and storytelling shape our moral choices?
UnBroken was made not to offer easy answers — but to spark dialogue and inspire action across generations. A healing salve that only the arts can offer, trauma and hope are blended to serve all ages and all faiths, including those who don’t subscribe to any religion.
WHY TEACH WITH FILM?
We often teach our students literature that originates from all around the world, but we tend to forget that what often spurs the imagination is both visual and auditory. According to the Social Science Research Network, 30% of the general population are auditory learners and 65% are visual learners. Meeting students in their own learning style is the best way we can engage them academically, and prepare them for the future.
In an age when literacy means familiarity with images as much as text, movies and documentaries cannot be overlooked as an academic resource. A well-selected film can provide an immediate, immersive window into school subjects, social justice issues and important cultural movements. Because films offer the chance to take on a new perspective, they are a great way to encourage empathy. Films evoke emotion, enliven the classroom, and bring energy to a course. Films inspire us to make a difference.
OUR
IMPACT
AUDIENCE
The UnBroken Learning Guide is aligned with national and state education standards, including Common Core State Standards (ELA/Literacy), the C3 Framework for Social Studies, and NCSS standards. Lessons are designed to support critical thinking, historical inquiry, media literacy and social-emotional learning, making the guide easily adaptable to individual state requirements.