RESOURCES:
"Unbroken: Would You Hide Me?" screening at the Michigan Theater
Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County
The Weber Family Arts Foundation
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU, and my guest today on All Things Considered is Beth Lane, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and the director of "UnBroken," a documentary that chronicles the lives of seven siblings who escaped Nazi Germany after being hidden by a farmer and his wife, essentially surviving on their own for nearly two years following their mother's incarceration and murder at Auschwitz. Thank you for joining me today!
Beth Lane: It's my pleasure to be here! Thank you for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: The making of this movie is deeply personal for you and clearly an emotional journey for you and your family. I wanted to ask you about the moment that you realized or decided that this incredible story of resilience should be made into a movie.
Beth Lane: You know, I was six years old when I learned that my mother was adopted, which is the same age that she was when she came to America as a refugee from Germany. I also learned, at the same time, not that she was a Holocaust survivor, I was a little too young to have her share that information and for me to even grapple with it or understand it, but that she had six other siblings. Of course, I asked her, "When can I meet them?" And she said, "You'll never meet them." And that was one of those, I think, defining moments in my life where I had this insatiable curiosity about, "Well, who are these people I don't get to meet?" Because I think when someone tells you no, you almost want it more than if they had said yes. And that kind of began my internal quest--or itch, I suppose--to want to learn more. I never felt that it was my story to tell. It was my mother's or her siblings because, of course, I did eventually. get to meet my aunts and uncle. But in 2017, my mom decided to go back to Germany. And my sister and I accompanied her, and we were introduced by the town historians of Voreen, which is where the farmland was where they were hidden, to the grandson of the farmer who hid them. And when that moment happened, it really was a watershed light bulb just kind of burst-out-of-my-brain moment. I just said, "That's it!" I saw the entire story from the reverse shot of what I had been looking at it my entire life, which was always from my point of view, from my mother's point of view. And when you meet the descendant of somebody who literally enabled your parent, who gave birth to me to actually be alive today, it was just something I can't really even describe the feeling. But that was the moment. It was a very singular moment where I said, "I will make a film, and I will not stop until it's finished!"
Caroline MacGregor: Your grandmother, Lina Weber, your mother's mother, and your mother's name is Bela, Lina appeared undaunted in the face of such enormous personal risk with her attempts to hide Jews. There's this heart-wrenching moment in the movie where your mother as a child looks out of the window watching her mother, Lena, being taken away in a car by several men. I cannot imagine how distressing and confusing it must have been for a child to witness this.
Beth Lane: Yes. The moment that you're speaking of, my mother was three years old at the time, and really, she was a baby. And in addition to the confusion of seeing her mother taken away and the fear around all of that, she was at home for hours on end by herself. So, when her siblings came home from school, when her father came home for work, and they all came in together and discovered that she was actually alone, that was another phase of the fear that happened throughout the day. You know, where's mom? And, of course, as a three-year-old, she can't really articulate what happened other than saying she got in a black car and left. And of course, because of the circumstances around 1943, they all knew what happened, especially because she had been arrested several times. And then, of course, the next morning, their father had gone to the local precinct to find out where his wife was. And they arrested him and put him in jail. So, Dad didn't come home that night. And then, the next morning, someone actually from the Jewish community came and put all the kids into a van to appear as if they were taking them to safety. And, of course, they were taken to the Jewish hospital in Berlin, which was a collection point for deportation.
Caroline MacGregor: Now, your grandfather, Alexander Weber--what happened to him after his incarceration?
Beth Lane: So, his story is equally as fascinating. My birth grandfather, Alexander, was a Catholic man from Paderborn, Germany. He met Lena when he was traveling selling parasols and walking sticks, which was the family business, when he was down in Hungary in Budapest, and he converted to Judaism in order to marry her in 1927. I mean, that's just unheard of. Eventually, they made their way to Berlin. And in 1933, one month after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he was arrested and deported, first to Platzensee Prison and then to Aranienberg, which is the very first concentration camp that the Third Reich established during that time. And the language that is on the documents that say why he was arrested, it's all farcical. It's all nonsense. And we'll never know exactly why he was arrested. but one can assume that it was because he was a Jewish sympathizer.
Caroline MacGregor: I'm talking with Beth Lane, the director of the documentary "UnBroken," which chronicles the lives of seven Jewish siblings who escaped Nazi Germany, at one point hiding out on a farm for about two years. When the children were hiding at the farm of Arthur and Paula Schmidt, the conditions they survived through are just amazing.
Beth Lane: It is incredible! The malnourishment, the feral hidden children aspect of being lice-ridden--who knows what kinds of diseases they could have received? In this day and age, we take for granted just dental health and so forth. And when you have no hygiene, all the kinds of things that can happen, it's extraordinary what they endured. They were left to their own devices because Arthur and Paula would come and go. And I think they were also very careful about having their presence at the farm, so that it wouldn't attract any ne'er-do-wells and find out what they were doing. They weren't hidden in an attic the way that, for example, Anne Frank, one of our most famous victims of the Holocaust, was. They were almost hidden in plain sight, but very, very careful. And because it was a very rural area, they could be out in a field and they were picking potatoes out of the ground and picking strawberries and things like that. But in terms of where did they sleep together at night in a one-room shack that was used to wash laundry on one mattress, seven of them, the conditions were harrowing.
Caroline MacGregor: With what's happening today with Israel and Gaza, how do you think this movie will be received right now? Because we seem to have more growing resentment towards Jewish people again, and there's a lot of support for the Palestinian cause. Does this concern you at all with regards to the screening of the movie and the message that you want to get out?
Beth Lane: It doesn't concern me. I think that "UnBroken" is hands down an antidote to hate. "UnBroken" is not a political statement. It's not a religious statement. It's a spiritual confession. And it's an opportunity for us to build bridges with communities. And I created the film quite literally to give audiences the opportunity to exercise their muscles of empathy and compassion. So, if anybody wants to be disruptive at a screening because of their own political agenda and so forth, what a missed opportunity for them to actually learn how to listen and talk to each other. I feel very strongly that what the world is going through right now is unprecedented. I don't even consider antisemitism to be on the rise. It's a fixture. It's here. It's in our faces in the most horrible possible way right now. And all of this sentiment about which side people are falling on is really such a horrible gross interpretation of what social media and what all kinds of media have tried to gain favor with different audiences. I feel so lucky to be on your show here, Caroline, because it gives me an opportunity to give a voice to people that are actually interested in building bridges. I, of course, don't support anything that's happening in the war right now on either side. But if this has happened so that we can actually foster a better world and better communities, well, then that's the space we have to walk into. And as responsible, ethical human beings, we're all called to do something to make the world a better place.
Caroline MacGregor: How has the movie been received so far?
Beth Lane: You know, we had our world premiere at the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis. It was an extraordinary world premiere in that we premiered on October 8th, 2023, which for those of us that are deeply involved in tracking the hostages and so forth, for it to be 24 hours after the worst atrocity that has happened to the Jewish people since the Holocaust was quite auspicious. We have since been on the road touring at festivals and won several awards at Heartland. We won Best Documentary Feature Premiere, which was very exciting, especially as a first-time filmmaker. We still are screening in brick-and-mortar theaters all over the country. We have a screening in Budapest in a couple of weeks. But in addition to being a University of Michigan alum, it's been my privilege and honor to work with my dear friend Ken Fisher, who is the University Musical Society President Emeritus of the last 30 years, and he's done such an extraordinary job of partnering with Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County. Ken has secured sponsorship, and it is a fundraiser for Jewish Family Services because they help so many refugees, and they need the support.
Caroline MacGregor: And I believe you established a nonprofit to help with fundraising.
Beth Lane: All of the profits from the film will go to the Weber Family Arts Foundation. And the mission of the foundation is to combat anti-Semitism and bigotry and hate of all kinds, specifically through the arts and by sharing stories of hope. So, I hope that everybody really leaves the theater or their experience of screening 'UnBroken" with a renewed and inspired sense of hope.
Caroline MacGregor: Beth Lane, thank you for joining me today!
Beth Lane: Thank you so much for having me, Caroline.
Caroline MacGregor: And a reminder that you can see "UnBroken" at The Michigan Theater on Monday, April 7th at 5:30 PM. For more information, visit wemu.org. This is 89.1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti.
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