Arizona Tribune - Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Condemns Toronto International Film Festival for Pulling Israeli Documentary

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / August 14, 2025 / The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF) strongly condemns the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for its decision to withdraw the Israeli documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue from its lineup.

The film, which documents the personal accounts of survivors and victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, was removed from the festival after TIFF cited a lack of copyright clearance for footage shot by Hamas through terrorists' body-worn cameras during the attack.

AJCF leaders called the decision "morally outrageous" and likened it to demanding permission from Nazi perpetrators to document Holocaust crimes.

"TIFF's reasoning is the moral equivalent of asking Holocaust survivors to secure Adolf Hitler's written consent to show Nazi-shot footage of concentration camps," said Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Director General Jack Simony. "Copyright law was never intended to protect the perpetrators of mass atrocities from accountability, yet TIFF's decision does precisely that."

Based in Oświęcim, Poland, adjacent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation is dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, combating antisemitism, and preserving historical truth. The organization warned that requiring documentation rights from those who commit atrocities sets a dangerous precedent that could obstruct efforts to preserve memory and justice.

"As the child of Holocaust survivors, I am appalled," said AJCF Chairman Simon Bergson. "My parents lived through a time when the world looked away and when documenting Nazi crimes was itself a struggle against indifference. TIFF's decision is a betrayal of that history. You do not ask mass murderers for the rights to show their crimes-you expose those crimes so the world can never deny them."

The AJCF emphasized that the footage in question had already been widely disseminated through platforms such as X and Telegram and is frequently used in news reporting and documentaries under established fair use principles.

"Footage that is already widely available on public platforms like X and Telegram is routinely used by documentary filmmakers, news outlets, and human rights organizations under fair use standards," said Simony. "Under U.S. law, and in many other jurisdictions, such use is considered lawful when it serves the public interest-especially when documenting human rights abuses. If these standards had been applied consistently in the past, much of the visual record of the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and atrocities in Syria and Ukraine would never have been seen. TIFF's selective enforcement sets a dangerous precedent that could silence critical historical documentation."

Simony further noted the glaring inconsistency in applying these standards:

"If a Palestinian filmmaker includes footage of Israeli soldiers, no festival demands signed consent from those individuals. Why, then, are Israeli filmmakers held to a different, impossible standard? The double standard is glaring."

He added that courts have repeatedly recognized that documenting atrocities is a matter of public record, not private ownership. "By imposing an impossible copyright hurdle on Israeli filmmakers, TIFF is effectively granting perpetrators a veto over their own exposure."

AJCF leaders concluded that historical memory relies on the free and honest documentation of atrocities. "When film festivals close their doors to these stories," Bergson said, "they don't just fail the victims-they empower the perpetrators."

The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to harnessing the lessons learned from the Holocaust to combat hatred and bigotry through educational programs and by providing direct humanitarian aid to victims of mass atrocities. It supports survivors of genocides and other tragedies, including Ukrainian refugees and those impacted by Hamas's October 7 attacks. The Foundation maintains the Auschwitz Jewish Center, the last remaining synagogue in Oświęcim (Auschwitz), and serves as the primary institution dedicated to preserving the memory of the town's Jewish community while addressing hate. To date, over a million people have visited the center, more than 300,000 students have participated in its educational programs, and tens of thousands of diplomats, military and law enforcement personnel, and educators have taken part in its educational initiatives on tolerance and the Holocaust. For more information, visit: https://ajcfus.org/.

Contact: Joshua Steinreich
Steinreich Communications
(212) 491-1600
[email protected]

SOURCE: Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

T.Perez--AT