With gratitude for the generosity of the family of Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Chuck Olin, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library is happy to announce the significant gift of the Olin Film Archive.

    This collection consists of production elements from two PBS-broadcast documentaries; In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in World War II, and; “Is Jerusalem Burning? Myth, Memory and the Battle of Latrun. Both films, relying primarily on first-person accounts, tell the story of critical episodes in the formation of the nation-state of Israel.

    The unedited versions of the first-person accounts contained in the collection offer the student or scholar a unique set of primary-source material. In advance of the establishment of bibliographic control of the collection, the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library will offer access by appointment. Please contact Mary Stuart for further information.

“This is the balance between yes or no the Jewish state. The idea of Jewish state before the war depended to a large extent on the pressure of millions of Jews who lost the basis for their existence in Europe. It was always claimed that the only real solution for their problem and for their plight is in Palestine. The Zionist goal since 1933 was to combine the Palestine problem with the problem of the Jewish plight in Europe. The British goal during those years was to separate these two problems. Most of the problem was tragically solved by Hitler during the war, and the only chance of achieving the Jewish state depended on the aspiration of the survivors for Palestine. It couldn’t be taken for granted when the war was over. Naturally, most survivors, first of all, thought of going back home to see who was left, what was left, or if there was no home to return to, to look for relatives around the world and join them. Most relatives were in America, and South America, and other emigration countries, not in Palestine. The transformation of the survivors collectively, not necessarily the individual will of any survivor, the transformation of this will to Palestine, strive for Palestine, was to a large extent the fruit of the Brigade meeting with the surviving remnant in the first months of the victory.”

–Yoav Gelber, ‘Jewish Brigade’ veteran,
  “In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in World War II”

“We didn't have enough people, so here come the immigration. A big discussion, should the new immigrants take part in the battles or not? God forbid that if we didn't take them in to take part of it there would have never been recreation of the unity of the Jewish people.”

–Shlomo Shamir, Commander, 7th Brigade
 “Is Jerusalem Burning? Myth, Memory and the Battle of Latrun"