Posted on November 2, 2025
When the lights dim at the Herberger Theater Center on Tuesday, Nov. 18, and the first frames of “i was 8814” flicker to life, an audience in Phoenix will witness not just the retelling of a harrowing childhood journey, but the culmination of a lifetime devoted to memory, reconciliation and education.
The new documentary, produced by Holocaust survivor Hanna Zack Miley and her husband, George Miley, chronicles Hanna’s escape from Nazi Germany as one of the last children to leave on the Kindertransport, the rescue mission that saved approximately 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Europe just before the outbreak of World War II.
The title, “i was 8814,” refers to Hanna’s number in line as she boarded the train that would carry her away from her parents, her home and everything she knew.