Student-produced documentary ‘Vital Passage’ to be screened Sept. 23 in Elkhart

The feature-length documentary “Vital Passage,” filmed and edited by Goshen College students and faculty last year, will be shown at the Lerner Theatre in Elkhart on Thursday, Sept. 23, at 7:30 p.m. This screening is free, but seats must be reserved through The Lerner.

Reserve your seat

The film chronicles the amazing story of David Plaut and his son, Sidney, Jewish merchants in Goshen, who risked their business and livelihood to provide a passage for Jews escaping the Holocaust.

“Vital Passage” chronicles the efforts of a Goshen family to sponsor and relocate 28 Jewish refugees amid mounting German persecution during World War II. The discovery of a lockbox hidden in the basement of the former Plaut’s Dry Goods store on Main Street in Goshen unlocked a 75-year-old family secret: the Plaut family’s readiness to risk their business to provide safe passage for others.

Read more about “Vital Passage”

For the past four years, a team of faculty and students from FiveCore Media, the Goshen College Communication Department’s video production company, has been developing this extraordinary story that, up until now, was not public.