Blue Heron International Pictures LLC

Award-winning director Gary Lester's first feature film about tolerance and the Holocaust has been enthusiastically received by audiences around the world.

"Deliver Us From Evil"  offers the gripping stories of ordinary people who have suffered unimaginable consequences of hatred and intolerance.

                                                                         (Photo courtesy SXC)

The film opened at the Daytona Beach Jewish Heritage Festival to an estimated audience of 10,000. It has since screened at the Non-violence International Film Festival in Ontario, Canada, and was broadcast nationally by Israeli television on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In addition, the film has been accepted as a permanent resource at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Ghetto Fighters Museum in Western Galilee, and Ravensbruecke Museum in Germany.

On August 23, 2008, the Florida Motion Picture & Television Association awarded a prestigious Crystal Reel Award to director Gary Lester.

Holocaust survivor Claire Soria holds the birthday gift she treasures, given to her by her father who died in Auschwitz.

In the first episode, Holocaust survivor Claire Soria describes her childhood in Nazi-occupied Belgium. When her parents are forced to go into hiding, an elderly Christian couple agrees to take her into their home and raise her as a grand-daughter. At great risk to their own lives, they save Claire's life. One day, however, the Gestapo comes knocking at the door.

Claire's Story is featured on IMDB -- The Internet Movie Data Base -- and may be seen by clicking here.

                                                                                          (Photo by Gary Lester)

        Holocaust survivor Asia Doliner talks about the Warsaw Ghetto.  

In the second episode, Asia Doliner describes her life in Poland after the German invasion. She suffers the loss of her home, and then her parents. "When the Germans arrived, a reign of terror began," said Asia.  

That reign of terror would soon claim both of her sisters as well. Making her way to Warsaw, she witnessed the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and its horrific aftermath. Before long, she was discovered and shipped off to two different Nazi concentration camps.

In a surprise turn of events, she would find herself assigned as a slave laborer in a German munitions factory, where she eventually was liberated. When she arrived in America after her journey through hell, Asia Doliner shouted, "I'm in heaven! I'm in heaven!"

                                                                 (Photo courtesy The National Archives

             Broadcast in Israel

                               April, 2008

The film’s associate producer, Alex Ringer, arranged with Israeli  television executive Anat Litman for a national broadcast the morning of May 1. 2008 - Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.

“I am elated,” exclaimed Lester. “The two survivor stories are both heartbreaking and inspirational. Together, they form an eloquent plea for world tolerance and understanding, and I believe our viewers in Israel will be deeply moved by this television experience.”

                                         Alex Ringer 

“Thanks to Alex, we’ve also placed copies in several major museums,” said R. I. Lester, executive producer for the project.

“The film will be shown and used for educational outreach at Yad Vashem, Israel's major Holocaust memorial, as well asat a museum named after the ghetto fighters."

Yossi Shavit, Archives Director of Ghetto Fighters' House Museum (Beit Lohamei Haghetaot) in Western Galilee, writes that the film, "will be made available to people who wish to learn about the events of the Holocaust and Jewish resistance."

For more information about this outstanding museum in Western Galilee, click here.

"We have also heard from the education director from the former Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp in Germany ,"said Lester, and we understand the film will be used with international student groups visiting that site.”

Robert Tanen, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League has indicated his organization has an educational outreach use for the film too.

Deliver Us From Evil premiered at the Jewish Heritage Festival in Daytona Beach, Florida earlier this month, where an audience estimated in the thousands silently watched the film.

                                                                               (Photo by Gary Lester) 

             “Thy children shall come again  to their border.”