The Generations After presents

50 Children - The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus

View the film September 16-30, 2026

Join the discussion September 27, 2026, 11:00 AM ET

Voluntary contributions of $18 would be greatly appreciated.

In the spring of 1939, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus embarked on a risky and unlikely mission. Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, they rescued 50 Jewish children from Vienna and brought them to the United States.

Directed by Steven Pressman and narrated by Alan Alda, 50 Children tells the previously untold story of how an ordinary American couple saved a group of young children who otherwise would likely have perished in the Holocaust. The documentary was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Programming. Mr. Pressman subsequently wrote a book also titled 50 Children that provides additional information about this almost-unbelievable rescue.

Link to Trailer

"Heart-wrenching, thrilling and above all relevant."

— The New York Times



"50 Small Victories in a Time of Unbearable Loss"

— The Jerusalem Post

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS:

Steven Pressman is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who worked in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco before turning to filmmaking. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Documentary Peer Group). Mr. Pressman first learned of the 50 rescued children in 2002 from his late wife, Liz Perle—the Krauses' granddaughter. She shared with him an unpublished manuscript written by Eleanor decades earlier, detailing their dangerous 1939 rescue mission.

Dena Hirsh, a member of the Generations After Board, Program Committee, Memoir Writing Group, and Speakers' Bureau, will moderate the Q&A session.