Launch of documentary on Wellesley couple who saved hundreds during Holocaust

On Wednesday, March 13, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Boston Next Generation Society will host a free documentary screening of Two Who Dared: The Sharps’ War at the Boston Public Library, followed by a panel discussion, according to a press release.

In early 1939, a young minister, Waitstill Sharp, and his wife, social worker Martha Sharp, left their home in Wellesley and sailed for Prague as representatives of the American Unitarian Association assigned to provide aid to refugees fleeing the Nazis. Despite enormous bureaucratic hurdles at every step, the Sharps secured safe passage to unoccupied countries, as well as scholarships and employment for many. The Sharps were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2006.

The panel discussion will feature director of Two Who Dared: The Sharps’ War and grandson of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, Artemis Joukowsky III of Sherborn; and child refugee rescued by the Sharps, Catherine Vakar Chvany of Watertown. Historian Aleisa Fishman will also speak at the panel.

The film is an official selection of the 2013 Boston International Film Festival in April. The film’s producers are also developing a curriculum for schools in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, based in Brookline.