A McHenry church is virtually screening a documentary film about the Unitarian couple who rescued Jews in Prague and France during World War II Thursday.

“Two Who Dared: The Sharps Story” will be shown via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Thursday by the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry, according to a news release. The film will be introduced by the congregation’s interim minister, the Rev. Jenn Gracen who has preached about the couple’s missions and will be available after the showing to answer questions and facilitate discussion.

The showing is free to the public, but donations can be made to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the continuation of the Unitarian Service Committee, according to the release. It partners with organizations around the world and in the U.S. on social justice projects, including refugee emergencies and immigration justice.

The documentary centers on the Rev. Waitstill Sharp, the minister of the Unitarian Church of Wellesley Hills in Wellesley, Massachusetts, who in 1939, responded with his wife, Martha, to an urgent plea to go as quickly as possible to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help endangered writers, artists, intellectuals and Jews out of the country before the Nazis occupied the city.

The pair left their church as well as their 8-year old son and 3-year old daughter in the care of friends.

Martha Sharp eventually escorted 35 refugees – journalists, political leaders and orphaned children – to England, crossing occupied Poland and Germany in a sealed car. Waitstill left Prague for Switzerland a few weeks later, and the couple returned to the U.S.

The couple later accepted a new assignment to France as the newly established Unitarian Service Committee’s “ambassadors extraordinary.” But before they could arrive in Paris to set up an office, the Germans occupied the city. Instead, the Sharps opened an office in Lisbon, where they could assist refugees who escaped to neutral Portugal.

For information, including a link to the Zoom, go to treeoflifeuu.org.