Into the Arms of Strangers

Into the Arms of Strangers

Film Guide Alicia McGivern

freshfilmfestival  Into the Arms of Strangers

Into the Arms of About the Director The story began with producer Strangers Mark Jonathan Harris worked as a Deborah Oppenheimer’s own mother crime reporter for the Chicago City who had been transported but who had Director Mark Jonathan Harris News Bureau then as an investigative never spoken about her experiences UK-USA/B&W, Colour/122 mins/2000 journalist before he began making in Great Britain and then the United films. He was co-director of The States. When she died in 1993, Crew Redwoods, a short documentary which Oppenheimer went in search of her Original Music Lee Holdridge won the 1967 Academy Award for story. Having seen Harris’ Academy Cinematography Don Lenzer Documentary Short Subject. He then award-winning documentary The Long Editor Kate Amend went on to direct three films which Way Home about Jewish refugees, she Producer Deboraj Oppenheimer he refers to as his ‘Jewish trilogy’: approached him with this project. Director Mark Jonathan Harris The Long Way Home (1997) dealt with She and Harris interviewed the experience of Jewish refugees survivors, read testimonies, diaries and after World War 11 and won the other written documents located in 1998 Oscar for Documentary, despite Holocaust institutions around the world. condemnation by Spike Lee who Realising that they couldn’t tell all of the alleged that the second half of the film 10,000 Kinder (plural of Kind) stories, was propaganda for the state of ; they decided to show representative A Dream no More, portrayed Israel accounts. Focussing on the experiences more negatively but was never shown; of twelve survivors, they create the Into the Arms of Strangers (2000) was documentary around these survivors’ the third film in the trilogy and it won memories of leaving their families, living the Academy Award for Documentary in Britain and surviving the war. The film Feature in 2000. Harris also won an was completed in two years and released Emmy for writing Unchained Memories: in US in September 2002. In Germany, Readings from the Slave Narratives. it has been distributed to every school Harris’s approach to casting his in the country as part of its compulsory films is to first interview many people, Holocaust education programme. and then to choose from those whose There have been many films based stories come across well on camera. He on , but in recent times and producer Oppenheimer used this there has been a shift from describing approach for Into the Arms of Strangers and the horrors of camps to telling heartfelt selected twelve subjects from the many stories of survivors or of those who people they interviewed. The director took great risks to rescue people. Such has also written children’s books and he films include Life is Beautiful/La Vita lectures at the University of Southern è Bella, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist California. Recent projects include The and Schindler’s List. Into the Arms of Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing Strangers has no particular heroes but (2004) and a TV documentary, The Oppenheimer and Harris have created Boomer Century (2007). a moving and powerful documentary about this largely unknown subject. Introduction Into the Arms of Strangers – Stories of the The Interviewees Kindertransport is a documentary film The ‘Kinder’ about the transportation of Jewish children Lorraine Allard from Bavaria; from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia transported aged 14. Lived with and Poland to Britain. This took place same foster family until 18 when during the nine months before the Second she joined the Auxiliary Territorial World War (1939-45) as part of a rescue Service to serve during the war. operation known as the Kindertransport Both parents died at Auschwitz, she (Kind = child in German). died aged 76.

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Lory Cahn from Breslau; had boarded they emigrated to US. Lives in Jack Hellman from Germany; the train to leave but was pulled off New York and was past president of was sent to boarding school by her father. Deported with her the KTA1. aged nine and the housemother parents to Theresianstadt, then she Alexander Gordon from Germany; wrote to Baron de Rothschild was sent to Auschwitz. Moved to lived in an orphanage from age asking him if he would take in different camps but released from of seven to sixteen. Farmworker twenty-six children, her husband, Bergen-Belsen weighing 56 pounds. – planed to move to Palestine herself and two daughters. Her mother died in Auschwitz but but instead he went on the Jack persuaded de Rotschild to her father survived. Lives in US. Kindertransport, but because of provide a work permit for his father Hedy Epstein from Germany; sent age, he was arrested and interned and they spent two years in Britain to London at 14, lived with two in June 1940. Shipped to Australia before emigrating to US. different families. Returned to on Dunera, interned for a year Died August 2001. Germany after the war to search then returned to Britain to join Bertha Leverton from Germany; for her parents and found out they the Pioneer Corps and served until the oldest of a Polish Jewish had died at Auschwitz. Lives in US. 1947. Lives in US. family. Went on Kindertransport Published a memoir in Germany Eva Hayman from Czechoslovakia; with brother at aged sixteen. about her experiences. left aged fifteen with her younger Was taken in by family to be a Kurt Fuchel from Vienna; lived there sister and spent two years in maid along with her brother till seven and then transported to boarding school before taking up and younger sister. Organised the Norwich where he lived with the nursing. Wrote wartime memorial, 50th and 60th Anniversary Reunion Cohen family until he was sixteen. By the Moon and the Stars telling of the Kindertransport. She compiled Parents escaped to south of France. her story up to 1945, the day she a collection of 250 memoirs of the Family reunited in 1947 and lived learnt her parents had died. Lives in transport entitled, I came alone. together in France until 1956 when New Zealand. Lives in London.

1 Kindertransport Association 1nc

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Norbert Wollheim from Germany, began organising Kindertransport in Berlin at aged 25. Escorted several, but returned to Germany each time. Deported to Auschwitz with wife and son. He alone survived his family of 70. Sued German manufacturer IG Farben for forced labour in camp. Settlement established fund of 6.43m to compensate other forced labourers. Died November 1998 aged 85, five weeks after interview for film.

Historical Context The Kindertransport took place during the nine months leading up to the outbreak of World War Two. Europe at this time was an unstable place, still suffering the effects of World Ursula Rosenfeld from Germany; County Down. Both parents War One. Germany was particularly father died at Buchenwald. Lived survived the war. He emigrated unsettled, having to abide by the Treaty in orphanage in Hamburg and to New York after the war to join of Versailles. The country’s economy had then transported with her sister. his mother. Has written extensive begun to recover during the 1920s, only Taken in by widow in Brighton, her educational material on Jewish to be hit again by the 1929 Depression. mother did not survive the war. She history, serves on KTA Board. It was in this climate that the Nazi Party remained in England. (National Socialist German Workers’ Inge Sadan from Germany; Parents Party), which Adolf Hitler joined in transported to Coventry aged nine Mariam Cohen, foster mother to Kurt 1919, began to gather a following. In after her elder sister had persuaded Fuchel; has a son John. Husband died their rhetoric they promised to rebuild a foster family to sponsor her. Five 1963. Still lives in Norwich where Germany, blaming ethnic minorities, difficult years with foster family, Kurt visits regularly. particularly the Jews, for the nation’s sister and brother, till parents Franzi Grossman, mother of Lore ills. When Hitler became Chancellor in arrived. Lives in Jerusalem, edited Segal. She and husband joined 1933, he began to dismantle democracy a book of Israeli Kinder memories. Lore in England in 1939, worked as and proclaimed himself ‘Führer’ of an Organised reunion. domestic couple during the war. authoritarian new regime. Lore Segal - Austrian; aged ten Lives in same apartment building as The Jewish population became a during Anschluss and transported daughter and has breakfast with her target for this intolerant government. to Dovercourt Camp where every day. They represented one percent of she wrote letters to relatives. the population in Germany but they Eventually her parents got a Rescuers were German citizens and enjoyed domestic service visa. Came to Nicholas Winton, stockbroker equal rights. Many of them served in Liverpool. Wrote a novel, Other from London. Aged 29 when he the army during WW1. Yet despite People’s Houses about living with visited refugee camps in Prague this, anti-Semitism was prevalent five different British families during full of refugees from the annexed in Germany and in Poland where the war. Lives in New York in same Sudetenland. This prompted him over 3 million Jews lived. Then the building as her mother. to try to save children. Brought government passed a series of laws Robert Sugar from Austria; left aged 664 Czech children over in nine that would restrict Jewish people from eight and sent to Jewish refugee months before war. Awarded MBE, equal participation in society. Limits hostel in Belfast and then to refugee Freedom of City of Prague, Rotary were placed on the number of Jewish farming settlement in Millisle, Service above Self Award. children who could attend German

 freshfilmfestival Into the Arms of Strangers schools (1933). The Nuremburg laws The Kindertransport Britain and lists were made of those (1935) followed and affected citizenship, After a Cabinet debate following an children who were deemed most employment, relationships, marriage appeal by a group of British Jewish vulnerable such as children in camps, and the biological designation of Jewish leaders some days after , Polish children, children in orphanages people. Between July and December it was agreed Britain would accept etc. The first transport departed from 1938, a series of discriminatory laws unaccompanied children under the Berlin on December 1st, 1938 and were passed, all of which restricted age of 17. The movement of children from Vienna on December 10th. The rights and access for Jewish people. was organised and funded by a non- last group left the Netherlands on May These included: compulsory identity denominational organisation called the 14th, 1940. In 1939 Senator Robert cards for over 15’s (1938), naming of Movement for the Care of Children Wagner and Edith Rogers proposed a children (1938) from a government list, who had to ensure that children could bill that would allow 20,000 children a ban on attendance of theatre, cinema, not become a financial burden on the emigrate from Germany to the concerts and forced payment for state. The Movement, later known as US. However, the bill was resisted damages caused during Kristallnacht2. the Refugee Children’s Movement set strongly by different representatives Jewish children were expelled from up systems in Germany and Austria and groups and was not passed. In public schools and forbidden entrance for organising the transport. Later total, approximately 10,000 children to German universities. These laws trains left from Prague and Poland too. were transported to Britain in the contributed to the degradation of the A call went out for foster homes in Kindertransport. Jewish population and their systematic and legalised abuse. Not only Jews were persecuted. Groups including Roma, homosexuals, communists, political dissidents and Sinti were also targeted. The Nazi Party’s goal of achieving a ‘pure’ Aryan race meant that groups such as these and Jews were perceived to weaken the race. The appeasement policy of other European countries enabled Hitler to build up the army again, in breach of the Treaty of Versailles, to annex Austria3 and then to march into Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. Jewish people in these countries were then subject to the same anti-semitic laws. Although forced emigration did offer a way of escape, many did not want to leave their homes and families. They weren’t allowed bring any valuables with them and it was difficult to find a country willing to take them in. At an international conference to discuss the problem, only the Dominican Republic offered to accept more refugees from all the countries present, many of which were still suffering the effects of WW1. Despite the brutal events of Kristallnacht which were reported internationally, most countries including Ireland did not open their doors.

2 Brutal anti-Jewish pogrom on night of November 9-10, 1938 3 The ‘Anschluss’, 1938

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Separated Children in Ireland For several years now, people escaping persecution, torture, war and other situations have been coming to Ireland to seek asylum. Over 4,500 separated children have arrived here4 from many countries including Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, DR Congo. Separated children are officially defined5 as children under 18 years of age who are outside their country of origin and separated from both parents or their previous legal/customary primary caregiver. They are entitled to international protection. Despite Ireland’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child irrespective of their status, reports have shown that separated children There has been a huge resurgence in the for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, are often invisible and not in receipt popularity of non-fiction filmmaking and whose tabloid approach combined of care equal to that of children who what was often considered an outmoded with his own reputation undoubtedly are regarded as citizens. Since 2001, and minority interest is now recognised influenced his film’s box office appeal. some 316 separated children seeking as a viable product for producers and But just when we thought the brash asylum have gone missing from state distributors. This current enthusiasm filmmaker inserted into almost every care6, showing how easily they could for non-fiction stands in contrast with scene was defining the contemporary fall between the cracks in residential ratings-conscious TV channels who are documentary, along comes former US institutions. Now, new safety standards producing less serious documentary but presidential hopeful Al Gore with An have been introduced in centres are churning out more of what is termed Inconvenient Truth a film that resembles housing asylum-seeking children. In ‘reality tv’. Yet what is documentary if a powerpoint presentation of his global their report on Separated Children, the it is not ‘real’? Traditionally regarded as warming lecture. Audiences queue up Irish Refugee Council, which is the focal the difference between depiction of the and the American Academy nominates point for SCEP in Ireland, points out ‘real’ ie. truth as opposed to the ‘unreal’ him for Best Documentary. that Ireland has an obligation to cherish ie. fiction, it is difficult to reach a clear It is difficult, therefore, to clearly all children equally. definition of the form when we look at define the documentary film today. today’s ‘reality’ e.g. Big Brother or I’m a Looking back at the history of film, we Documentary Celebrity with their staged environments can see that filming reality has always Into the Arms of Strangers can be and financial incentives or today’s fiction been an indefinite science. The earliest categorised as a documentary film. e.g. The Queen. films shown in cinema, those of the Typically, a documentary film would On the one hand, many of the Lumière Brothers, were of workers get a small release and be shown on so-called reality programmes have leaving a factory or a train arriving at a the arthouse and film festival circuit. borrowed from documentary. On the station. So real did this latter episode In recent years, however, several other, the narrative style of some of appear to the untrained audiences documentary films such asBowling the hit documentaries has obviously that they allegedly leapt from their for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, An been influenced by fiction filmmaking. seats. In America, the travelogue Inconvenient Truth and Touching the Void And then there’s Michael Moore, defined the non-fiction film for some have enjoyed major box office success. director of the award-winning Bowling time and perhaps this echoes the

4 Report: Irish Refugee Council, December 2006 5 The Separated Children in Europe Programme (SCEP) which was established in 1997 in response to the increased arrival of separated children in Western Europe 6 The Separated Children in Ireland, www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/press06

 freshfilmfestival Into the Arms of Strangers enthusiasm for the nature documentary (i) ‘Lecture style’ – a disembodied Columbine, Michael Moore was criticised today. Pioneering filmmaker Robert voice directs our attention to what for obviously harassing Charlton O’Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922) is important, such as Judi Dench in Heston to prove his own point, and and Man of Aran (1935) were regarded Into the Arms od Strangers. Producer for manipulatively quoting statistics, as groundbreaking in their use of film Oppenheimer and director Harris often out of context. Yet his films for ethnographic and anthropological wanted a voice that would be made a powerful impact and raised all purposes. Yet the issue of reality arose recognised as ‘English’ and safe. kinds of questions about the American in relation to his work when it was Dench’s status as a well-known gun lobby or the elections, which he subsequently revealed that he staged and respected actor adds to the continues to tackle on his website. certain events such as seal-hunting with seriousness of the material. Similarly When reality TV programme, spears, a long-outdated practice among the use of Morgan Freeman’s voice Big Brother, provokes race questions the Inuit, for his documentary Nanook in The March of the Penguins brings a in Westminster, we might rightfully of the North. Russian filmmaker Dziga certain gravitas to the story of the question the nature of the ‘reality’ Vertov inserted an aesthetic and penguins’ journey as well as adding which such programmes purport to political sensibility into his filmmaking to the film’s appeal. represent. Technology has made it with Man with the Movie Camera (1929), (ii) Observational, ‘fly on the wall’ possible for us to film or see all aspects again prompting questions about the – the camera observes with as little of life – ‘live’. Filming the ‘real’ has never ‘reality’ that he was showing. The work intrusion as possible. Originating been so easy or accessible but it has of British filmmaker John Grierson in the 1960s as Direct Cinema, it also never been so potentially abusive offered social commentary on life in was facilitated by the development of privacy and human rights. Perhaps in Britain during the 1930s and 40s and of new lightweight cameras. these days of ‘reality’ overkill, the job aimed to educate the people in political Nowadays, mobile phone cameras of the documentary filmmaker to reveal democracy. In Ireland, the Radharc make this a readily available form of truth has never been more crucial. team created many documentaries documenting. for television that offered viewers an (iii) ‘Reflexive’ – The filmmaker Kindertransport as insight into various social issues both at makes the audience aware of the Documentary home and overseas. actual process of filmmaking – in Unlike some of the highly successful Television channels today are filled other words ‘how’ the documentary documentaries mentioned, Into the with various versions of ‘reality’, which is constructed. To this definition Arms of Strangers is a fairly conventional have merged aspects of documentary could be added the performative film, combining news footage and filmmaking making definition even more mode, made familiar to us through photography with interviews. Harris difficult. Consider a TV programme the work of Michael Moore and and Oppenheimer’s aim was to reflect such as The Office: it may look the same also Nick Broomfield (Biggie and the full range of Kinder experience. as a docu-soap (documentary soap) Tupac, In this World). Both of these Obviously with limited time, they had on office conditions but it relies on filmmakers insert themselves to make choices from among the many the viewer’s interpretation to identify very obviously into the film and people they spoke to for their film so its mockumentary status. Or take the comment directly on the material they endeavoured to select stories that ubiquitous docudrama, in which real they are filming or presenting to us. would be representative. They used no events such as crimes or miscarriages actors. The film is logically sequenced of justice are recreated for the Ethics around interviews that follow a ‘before’ purposes of illustration or argument. One of the key questions that arise ‘during’ and ‘after’ transportation of In choosing to represent reality, the frequently in relation to documentary the Kinder. However, compiling the film and programme makers carefully filmmaking is that of ethics – both in series of interviews with footage and select what to show, how to edit, and terms of the viewer but also in terms documentation was not just a matter what techniques will contribute to the of the interviewees or the presentation of editing them together. Through particular reality they wish to convey. of material. RTÉ’s programme series, skilful editing and the use of voiceover But despite these variants, as the Asylum, received praise but also and soundtrack, they create a certain documentary form continues to evolve censure for its representation of mood and atmosphere which may we can observe certain methods and the realities of Portrane Hospital in evoke feelings in the viewer. They also styles that prevail in the portrayal and which residents were often depicted add some cutaways and digital video to representation of reality: in a very vulnerable way. In Bowling for illustrate particular points.

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like the sky one might see from a train horrific nature of events of that night, window – each interviewee is shown November 9th 1938, is conveyed. against a different shade of blue. The film Actions such as marching are shown, continues to cut between interviews and but incompletely. Certain subjective footage creating the effect of a window items such as stairs, boots, clock are onto their childhood. When the third picked out as the camera moves around interviewee tells us that she did not the rooms. A photo of synagogue know what she and her father were objects reminds viewers who the protecting their other family members victims were. To add to the power of from, the film cuts to footage of Hitler, this scene, colour footage of looted accompanied by a roaring crowd. shops destroyed with the ‘Jude’ sign This combination of footage, stills, is added and the voiceover recounts colour photography merging with the worldwide revulsion that was felt black and white, voiceover, orchestral following newspaper reports, revealed and choral soundtrack and to camera through headlines. interviews all combine to establish the mood of memory and nostalgia Final Note that underlies the complete film. The Into the Arms of Strangers is a powerful sequence is fast-paced, we are offered film that delves into the collective glimpses of memory just as they might memory of a group of children spared crop up. Despite the quantity and the horrors of the Second World War range of images, however, the sequence due to the far-sighted intervention is carefully structured so that the of some well-meaning adults. Style ‘beginning’ of the documentary and the Individual eyewitness accounts in this Opening Scene Kindertransport is firmly established. documentary build up a picture of the From the opening scene of the film, initial difficulties facing Jewish families in which is in colour, it is clear that this is Kristallnacht Germany and Nazi-controlled Europe, a film of memory, from a child’s point of This scene begins with the voiceover the journey to sanctuary in another view. The camera tracks over artefacts telling us about the Nazi pogrom country and the time spent in these from a German childhood: books and against a background of marching Nazis host countries. The film allows us to toys that evoke a sense of nostalgia. and street scenes, on which buildings question our own attitudes to refugees, Piano music plays in the background. are covered in Nazi flags and banners. our responsibilities to children and An adult voice speaks: ‘I still have Sound is distorted and sound effects young people and to all vulnerable dreams and certain things come back’ exaggerate the marching and crashing group fleeing persecution at home. which reinforces the idea that we of glass. Footage is slowed down to are seeing and hearing recollections. create a more ominous impression, Further Information When a train is shown pulling into a then with use of digital video, the Into the Arts of Strangers: station, it changes to black and white. camera swirls around a spiral staircase Stories of the Kindertransport: Children’s voices can be heard singing moving upstairs to reveal a skylight. www.intothearmsofstrangers.com above a montage of childhood photos. A A voice over reveals ‘I had a dream’ voiceover then interjects commentary and recollections of fathers’ actions Kindertransport Association: about the period. Then, to confirm this, are narrated against photographs of www.kindertransport.org the first interviewee appears, speaking different men, desperate to save their to camera against a blue background. families from the Nazi’s brutality. In Holocaust The filmmakers’ intention with the this, one of the more stylised scenes Memorial Museum background was that it would appear of the film, a sense of the chaotic and www.ushmm.org

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