Steven Pressman Talk

The Marshalltown Public Library will present a talk and book signing by documentary filmmaker and author Steven Pressman on Thursday, April 28 at 6:00pm at Dejardin Hall, Marshalltown Community College, 3702 S. Center St.

A jour­nal­ist with over 30 years’ expe­ri­ence, Steven Press­man is the writer, direc­tor and pro­duc­er of the doc­u­men­tary film,  50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus. It was first shown on HBO in April 2013.

50 Children tells the story of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia who traveled to Nazi Germany in 1939 and, with the help of the B'rith Sholom fraternal organization, saved Jewish children in Vienna from likely death in the Holocaust by finding them new homes in Philadelphia. The Krauses were the grandparents of Pressman's wife, Liz Perle, and the film is based on the manuscript of a memoir left behind by Eleanor Kraus when she died in 1989. Pressman is also the author of a book of the same name which tells the Kraus’s story.

In his presentation, Pressman will discuss Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus’ story as well as the process of making the documentary film and writing his book.

Copies of Pressman’s book, 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany will be sold by Beaverdale Books and signed by Pressman after the presentation.

This program is part of the library's Americans and the Holocaust exhibition, which is a traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The exhibition will be at the library from Saturday, March 26 through Friday, May 6. For more information, please visit https://www.marshalltownlibrary.org/americans-and-the-holocaust-exhibition/.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call the library’s Information Desk at 641-754-5738 ext. 4 or visit the library’s website at www.marshalltownlibrary.org.