Some fled to France, Great Britain, the United States, or the Soviet Union; others were born in exile or in the post-war period. Their families returned to the GDR since they dreamed of a better Germany; communist, peaceful, anti-fascist – and also free of anti-Semitism.
Though family and friends had disappeared, in the GDR they were able to find work, somewhere to live, and a society, one united under the slogan Never Again War!, that they could relate to. Nevertheless, they clearly sense that as well as being communists and citizens of the GDR, they are also like fish out of water - the feeling of being different forever accompanied them. Were they first and foremost communists and then Jewish? Or vice versa? And how was this viewed by the political establishment of the time?
As, at the end of the 1980s, the GDR first underwent a transformation and ultimately ceased to exist, they spoke on camera about their lives for a US research project, reflecting in the process on their special status and taking a critical look at both what had occurred over the past years and also contemporary social changes – including the threatening rise of right-wing extremism.
Text: Rainer Mende
Supporting film: Schalom, Neues Deutschland (Tom Franke, Mark Chaet, Lutz Rentner, DE 2018, 45 min)
Following both screenings there will be a Q&A. Guests: Lutz Rentner (co-director Shalom, Neues Deutschland), André Herzberg (protagonist Shalom, Neues Deutschland), Martin Pátek (director Chronik einer Rückkehr), Jeff Peck (co-author Chronik einer Rückkehr), John Borneman (only on May 11th, co-author Chronik einer Rückkehr)