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This touching documentary, in which students from the last Jewish school in Berlin to be shut down by the Gestapo are reunited in 1996, was produced in association with Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to videotape testimony of Holocaust survivors, and this documentary, which is hosted by actor Anthony Hopkins, is a microcosmic look at the foundation's ambitious mandate. The students from Gross Hamburgerstrasse School tell personal stories of how Nazi persecution escalated throughout the 1930s, eventually destroying what should have been their happy teenage years. Some of the students were able to escape the Holocaust by making their way to other countries, though some suffered terribly in concentration camps. Those from the school who survived generally thought they might be the only survivor among all their classmates, so it was particularly touching to hold the unprecedented reunion in this documentary. But despite some happy aspects of the reunion, there is a palpable sadness, such as when an elderly man who was a student at the school reads the list of classmates who perished. Each name is intoned, along with the name of the concentration camp where the student was killed. This is an intelligent and ultimately hopeful look at one of history's greatest tragedies.
--Robert J. McNamara
Product Description
In April 1942, the Gestapo shut down the last Jewish school in war-torn Berlin. In April 1996, fifty of its former students traveled from around the world to the recently re-opened school many unaware if their classmates had survived. This unprecedented reunion of the Grosse Hamburgerstrasse School weaves together the social and political events of the thirties and forties, detailing the rich Jewish life of pre-war Berlin, the implementation of anti-Semitic policy, and survival despite Kristallnacht and the Final Solution. Narrated by Anthony Hopkins with testimonies compiled by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, this moving program gives voice to the innocent casualties of Nazi Germany. Join THE LOST CHILDREN OF BERLIN as they bear witness to the events surrounding the most bitter period of their lives. All of A&E’s net proceeds from the sale of this video will be donated to Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.
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