We Were German Jews

1981 / 58 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood

Herbert and Lotte Strauss fled Germany in 1943, escaping their near certain fate in a Nazi Concentration camp. The brave pair take us back through time, sharing the details of their trying and personal journey to the United States and the life that followed. Herbert and Lotte describe to us the urgency they felt to leave Germany for the sake of their daughter, who was born the year the couple immigrated to America. Still tormented by the loss of many family members and friends, The Strauss’s bravely return to Germany for a haunting confrontation of their past. Upon their arrival, Herbert discusses the lingering sadness he feels describing it as, “The deep melancholy over the loss, or the murder now as you knew, of your whole society, of your friends, of these many young people I had been associated with who had disappeared and not come back.” This understated, very personal story adds significantly to the body of evidence that explores human behavior in the face of genocide and insists that we remember the past and learn from it.