Holocaust Documentary Films in Leavey Library (DVDs): Austria/Germany

Alle Juden raus! = All Jews Out
"The film maker travels from New York to Göppingen, Germany. He interviews many Jews who relate their recollections of the Holocaust and events leading up to it."

An Apartment in Berlin
"Young Israelis in Berlin are mostly attracted by its cosmopolitan and international atmosphere, the low cost of living and the good infrastructure, which make life fairly easy. Berlin was also the place from which the Nazis planned the systematic extermination of the Jews. Three generations after the Holocaust, does this fact matter to young Israelis? How does it affect their lives today? Three of them want to find out, what it would do to them to embark on a journey into the past by retracing the life and refurnishing the original apartment of a Jewish family from Berlin once deported by the Nazis."

Auf Wiedersehen: 'Til We Meet Again
"Author and activist Linda Mills pries open the darkly guarded doors of history as she takes her comedic son and opinionated mother to Vienna, Austria where they discover an astonishing array of collaborators, victims, and unlikely heroes in a startlingly humorous adventure spanning from World War II to 9/11."

Hearts Divided: Baptism and the Jews in the Third Reich
"In 1933 Berlin Bishop Joachim Hossenfelder proclaimed the popular, pro-Nazi 'German Christian' movement the 'Storm Troopers of Christ.' Hossenfelder led the early phase of a movement that still echoes through the church today, even though the world has tried to forget. This film looks at the people who lived through the movement.."

In Vienna, They Put You in Jail: The Max Birnbach Story
"Chronicles the story of Max Birnbach, including his imprisonment by the Nazis, a dramatic escape to the Swiss border, life in a refugee camp, the futile efforts to save his parents from deporation to the concentration camps, and the remarkable meeting that made possible his emigration to America."

Kristallnacht Remembered: Personal Stories from 1938
"This documentary by Evie Sullivan captures the memories of three Viennese Jews, Annie Wagner Lampl, Frederic Morton, and Egon Schwarz, in personal interviews. They were children and young adults when they were forced to leave Vienna after Kristallnacht. They later established productive, happy lives in the USA. This film project may be the last chance to get the facts of this horrible event from actual survivors."

More Than Broken Glass: Memories of Kristallnacht
"Presents a portrait of the time and events surrounding Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, through the use of archival footage, photographs, and interviews."

The Nazi Officer's Wife
"One Jewish woman's true story of surviving the Holocaust by marrying a Nazi officer."

The Night of Broken Glass: The November 1938 Pogroms
"After seizing power, the Nazis began their crusade against Jews with discriminatory laws and the looting of property; they turned to violence openly in what has come to be known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. In November of 1938, German soldiers set on fire some 400 synagogues and destroyed 7,000 Jewish stores and businesses. Through rare footage, photographs and documents, reveals the background to this orgy of anti-Semitic violence."

Portrait of Wally
"...traces the history of Egon Schiele's celebrated painting of his mistress, Walburga ('Wally') Neuzil -- from Schiele's gesture of affection toward his young lover, to the theft of the painting from Lea Bondi, a Jewish art dealer fleeing Vienna for her life during World War II, to the to the post-war confusion and subterfuge that evoke The Third Man. The twisting story grows even more complicated when 'Wally'resurfaces on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in 1997, igniting a landmark battle that pits the Manhattan District Attorney, the United States Government and Lea Bondi's heirs against MoMA and a major Austrian museum. The 'Wally' case has brought the history of Nazi art loot into the open, showing that institutions can be held accountable for holding art stolen during the Holocaust."

Trapped in Hitler's Hell
"Anita Dittman was just a little girl when the winds of Hitler and Nazism began to blow through Germany. Raised by her Jewish mother, she came to believe that Jesus was her Messiah at eight years old. By the time she was ten, the war had begun."

Watermarks
"The story of the surviving members of the Viennese Hakoah sports club women's swim team, a world-dominating competitor in the 1930s. The club was eventually shut down during Hitler's reign, though all the women managed to escape capture. Combines historical footage and contemporary interviews to reconnect the women's lives and memories."

Das Weiterleben der Ruth Klüger = Landscapes of Memory: The Life of Ruth Klüger
"Ruth Klüger grew up in fascist Vienna, survived three years in Nazi concentration camps, and went on to become a college professor and a recognized authority on German literature. She also wrote Landscapes of Memory: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, an award-winning best seller said to be "as important as The Diary of Anne Frank - and equally unforgettable" by The Independent (London). In this documentary, Klüger doesn't mince words as she shares her thoughts on her childhood in anti-Jewish Vienna, her post-World War II life in America, her experiences as a mother of two American sons, and the culture of commemoration that has grown up around the Holocaust. Filmed in Vienna, California, Göttingen, and Israel."