We are Jews from Breslau
Young Survivors and their Fates after 1933
A
feature documentary
by Karin Kaper and Dirk Szuszies
Protagonists:
Esther Adler, Gerda Bikales, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Renate Lasker-Harpprecht, Walter Laqueur, Fritz Stern, Günter Lewy, David Toren, Abraham Ascher, Wolfgang Nossen, Eli Heyman, Mordechai Rotenberg, Max Rosenberg, Pinchas Rosenberg
and a German-Polish Group of young people in Berlin and Wroclaw
Music: Carlo Altomare, Patrick Grant, Simon Wallfisch
Additional music: two songs from Bente Kahan recorded in November 2015 at a concert at the White Stork Synagogue which was arranged by Bente Kahan to support refugees from Syria:
Ani Ma’amin Text from the prayer book by Rambam and Music: Piano: Tomasz Kasiukiewicz and Clarinet: Igor Pietraszewski
Unde Malum Text: Tadeusz Różewicz. English translation: Joanna Trzeciak Music: Bente Kahan Musician: Double bass: Adam Skrzypek
In cooperation with Bente Kahan Foundation, Wroclaw
Under the patronage of Rafał Dutkiewicz, Mayor of the City of Wroclaw and the late Władysław Bartoszewski, State Secretary for International Dialogue in the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister (posthumously)
Project Coordination: Maria Luft
Academic Advice: Katharina Friedla
Preview on 6th of November 2016, 5 p.m.
Cinema Nowe Horyzonty in Wrocław
As Part of the Program of the
European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016
German Premiere 13. November 2016, 4 p.m. in Berlin
Zeughauskino (Deutsches Historisches Museum)
German Cinema Release 17. November 2016
Sponsors and cooperation partners of the film project and the workshop:
Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Auswärtiges Amt, Deutsch-Polnische Wissenschaftsstiftung, Deutsch-Polnisches Jugendwerk and Bethe-Stiftung within the program „Wege zur Erinnerung“, Tönnjes E.A.S.T., Ursula Lachnit-Fixson-Stiftung,
City of Wrocław, Foundation Zukunft Berlin
They were young, looking forward to the future with great expectations; they felt at home in Breslau, the city with the third biggest Jewish community in Germany at that time. Then, Hitler came to power. From this time onwards these young people were connected by the common fate of being persecuted as Jews. Some of them took flight, others went into exile and remarkably some survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. Deprived of their homes they escaped to all sides for rescue and built new lives in their different host countries. More than a few made significant contributions to the founding and building of the State of Israel.
14 survivors are the protagonists of the documentary. They remember not only vividly their former Jewish environment in Breslau. Their later experiences impressively illustrate a multifaceted portrayal of their generation. Some of them even took the long journey to the city of their birth upon themselves. There, in the Polish city of Wrocław of today, they meet with a German-Polish group of young people. Especially in these times of growing anti-Semitism, the documentary builds an emotional bridge from the past to a future that is shaped by all of us.
In the documentary, the new homes of the protagonists in the USA, Israel, England, France and even Germany are integrated to give the audience a conscious perception of the far-reaching consequences of their “Being-thrown-into-the world”.
Another significant element of the story is the building of a new Jewish community in Wrocław. This aspect shows the extent of the fall: the contrast to times past irreversibly lost, but yet reveals subtly the chance for new beginning.