Between the Ditches and Ramparts [screening + discussion]

Documentary and discussion on Terezín, a Baroque fortress and former ghetto, whose quiet streets still bear the weight of the Holocaust.
About this Event

Between the Ditches and Ramparts / dir. Viktor Portel / 2024 / documentary / Czechia / Czech with English subtitles / 38 min.

This evening features a screening of Viktor Portel’s short documentary Between the Ditches and Ramparts (Mezi příkopy a valy), followed by a discussion with Michael Simonson, Head of Public Outreach and Archivist at the Leo Baeck Institute. The program is presented in connection with the exhibition ​ , on view at the Center for Jewish History.​

No place in Czechia bears the imprint of the Holocaust as deeply as Terezín. In the film, a lone traveler wanders through its streets, encountering local residents who would rather leave the past behind. Yet as the former ghetto fades from living memory, forgetting has done little to bring the town back to life. Why has Terezín become a ghost town? And what does its desolate present reveal about our broader relationship to Jewish history and remembrance?

Presented in connection with the Leo Baeck Institute’s exhibition, the program reflects on Terezín as a place where history, memory, and everyday life continue to intersect. The exhibition, on view from May 6 to December 31, 2026, presents for the first time in the United States a rare album of private photographs preserved by an inmate of the Theresienstadt Ghetto. The album contains the first known surviving images of Theresienstadt not produced for propaganda purposes.

Between the Ditches and Ramparts had its world premiere as an official selection of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and was also selected for the JFBB Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg. Director and producer Viktor Portel won first prize in the Online Current Affairs and Reportage category of Czech Press Photo for his film Heart of Havel. His feature documentary debut The Investigator had its international premiere at FIPADOC.

This event is organized by the Czech Center New York, the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, and Post Bellum, in collaboration with the Leo Baeck Institute and support from Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.

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