"Hey, Arnon." "Hello." "Half of it will go into the garbage." "This is broken." "No, it isn't broken." "But we'll check carefully." " What do you want to do?" " First, the big stuff." "Next important thing is..." "the books." "Most of them are probably in German." "We'll have to come another day and see what's here." "The Persian rugs are worthless." "They're probably worth nothing." "Let's move on, Mom." " Hello." " Hi." "Hi." "Hello." "Last one in closes the door behind." "The question is, has Grandpa had a safe with something in it?" "If he did, I want it." " Who locks the door?" " Arnon." "Anybody down there?" "No." "...6, 7, 8, 9." "Look at this." " Look." " Wow!" "Lovely!" "37, 38, 39, 40." "I never smoked, but Grandma used to smoke like this." "The treasure chest." "How can anyone hoard so many things?" "Look, Arnon." "Hi, Arnon." " How are you?" " Glad you came." "All these..." "Nobody reads Shakespeare anymore." "Nobody wants it." "Americans buy them in the Frankfurt Book Fair by the yard just to put on their shelves to look cultured and all." "They don't even know what's in the books, but it looks good." "I suggest we go over the books section by section and try to find the ones that are in good shape, because nobody reads Balzac, for example." " None of these are interesting?" " No, not at all." " Nobody reads these anymore." " What is it?" "Meaning...?" "The History of the Jewish People." "Would you read it?" " Dostoyevsky!" " Yes, but only the first half." "Herr Nietzsche." "Some people read Nietzsche, but not in this print." "Any idea how many books they throw away in Germany?" "I'm telling you, there are tons of books that..." "Nobody wants them." "Goethe." "Forget it." "This is my grandfather..." "My grandmother..." " My aunt and my uncle." " Nice." "Pomerania..." "What's interesting about German Jews is..." "How long did they live in Germany?" "Until their 20s or their 30s, right?" "Then they lived in Israel for 50 years." "Still, their heart stayed with those first 20 years in Germany." "These books are all in German." "I'm sure they suffered and that they had a hard time here." "What do you know about Grandpa's family?" "Nothing." "Nothing at all." "When was Grandpa born?" "In 1900?" "And where was he born?" "Those are tough questions." "What did Grandpa do in Berlin?" "He was a traffic court judge." " A traffic court judge?" " Yes." "Dad said he was a judge, a very good one." "That he protected the good guys and punished the bad ones." " When was Grandma born?" " Can't help you. I don't know." "I forget. I know very little of the family history." "And I got an "A" in history." "Found anything?" "No, only bank statements from 2000." ""To Kurt Tuchler," issued April 18, 1911." ""A bicycle license."" "Well." "Jewish Community." "Maybe they brought newspapers with them to Palestine." ""A Nazi Travels to Palestine."" "What does that mean?" "Look, a map." "Look, a swastika and a Star of David." "What is this?" "I have no idea." "The author was a nobleman, von Mildenstein." "He published a series of articles in the most Nazi newspaper imaginable at the time," "Der Angriff, which means "The Attack."" "The German Zionist Federation felt this trip was important, so they sent..." "Kurt Tuchler with him." " My grandfather." " Yes, your grandfather." "Hold on." "You have found it among your grandfather's writings, right?" "He told you about it." "My grandfather hadn't told me anything about it." "No, he reported on it to Yad Va'Shem." "Tuchler writes that... he went with von Mildenstein in April '33 on a trip to Palestine." "And Mildenstein returned, as Tuchler writes," ""an enthusiastic Zionist."" "These articles were..." "pro-Zionist?" "Yes." "Why are you amazed?" "It was sort of a temporary mutual interest." "The Germans wanted to get rid of the Jews, and the Zionists wanted them in Palestine." "What did the Zionists have to offer them?" "They brought the Jews to Palestine." ""Happy birthday, Grandma."" "Do you know how many people got these?" "Do you?" "I threw them all away." "Arnon, do you want any of these letters?" "Sure. it's our entire family history." "Anyone in their right mind would throw them out." " "Flowers Galore." Need this?" " Yes." "I threw out a bunch." "Letters from people you don't even know." "The people I don't know are the most interesting." "I threw out a whole bunch." " l can't believe it!" " There's another one!" "What is it?" " What's this thing?" " See the snakeskin?" " Incredible!" " Seen this?" " lt's processed." " But this isn't." "Revolting." "Did people really wear these?" "I grabbed it by the leg." "Yuck!" " Orit, come here!" " You must see this." "Did they wear it like this?" "Maybe they wore it alive and it died later." " Grandma wore this?" " Sure." "I found this at my grandma's." "Do you remember it?" " When was it published?" " Do you remember writing it?" "We remember some things... visually." "I remember visiting your grandmother." "She received us by etiquette:" "with coffee, tea, plates loaded with cookies... but the atmosphere was charged." "After all, she and her husband toured Israel with a Nazi." "I was amazed she had consented to meet us at all." "People don't usually like to talk about such things." "I asked for photos, and she brought some, the size of stamps." "I took them and, for some reason, never returned them." "I just kept them." " Still got them?" " Yes." "We kept them all these years." "We knew they were historic, so we kept them just in case." "And here they are." "These are enlargements." "This one is from Venice, where they apparently stopped." "That's what I think." "Unless this isn't your grandma." " That's her." "But who is that?" " That's von Mildenstein's wife." " Who gave her those photos?" " He did." " Von Mildenstein?" " Yes." "While both couples were still living in Berlin." "Still in its original wrapping." "Just as he sent it." "They're tiny." "Can't see anything." "You'd have to enlarge them." "Wow." "When your grandparents emigrated to Palestine, the Mildensteins escorted them to the train station." "From Palestine, they sent the Mildensteins their new address and started corresponding." "I'm certain that until 1939, your grandparents and the Mildensteins have corresponded regularly." "What happened afterwards?" "Right after the war, von Mildenstein tried to contact your grandpa, perhaps to clear his name, as many Nazis did." "Your grandmother called them "Persil letters,"" "meaning "white-washing letters,"" "but your grandpa refused to reply." "Yes, this is Grandma, but with who?" "Nice." "They look so..." "coquettish." "Did she tell you about her relations with the Mildensteins?" "I don't..." "don't remember this story." "It's a very strange story:" "Zionists traveling together with a Nazi..." "Didn't you ask her..." " ...anything?" " No." "They only mentioned it once, when we discovered the album, but I never asked." "Had I asked, she might've told me, but I didn't." "Why?" "I wasn't interested." "I simply wasn't." "There's something very interesting concerning von Mildenstein." "He recruited Eichmann into the "Department of Jewish Affairs"" "of the SS." "He gave Eichmann... his job?" "Yes." "Maybe that's why they never mentioned it." "I guess it made them... uncomfortable, maybe." "This is the first time I've heard about it." "I found the transcription of Eichmann's interrogation." "Look how many times he mentions Mildenstein." "He's talking about who was there." "Who?" "Goering, Goebbels, and Mildenstein." "He regarded Mildenstein as his master..." "Later he realized that Mildenstein looked into the future, that he knew more than all of his superiors put together." "He knew about the Jews more than any of them." "Yes." "He got his expertise from his trip to Palestine with Grandpa." "So it seems." "So it does interest you." "It's interesting, but again, I'm not going to start looking into it." "If I happen upon it, fine." "What good will it do me?" "Will it... make me see them in a different light?" "I had my own burden of living with them." "I don't really care what happened so many years ago." "No, I don't care." ""MlLDENSTElN"" ""ElCHMANN'S PREDECESSOR"" "The Jews have captured Eichmann" "One of the worst monsters of all time." "The menace will be held in a bulletproof glass cell to prevent assassination attempts." "The trial will be filmed by a foreign TV." "Adolf Eichmann has been undergoing a relentless cross-examination for days." "When attorney general Mr. Hausner had asked who was responsible for the expulsion of the Jews from public life in Germany between the years 1933-39, the following dialogue ensued." "In this emigration, the Jews lost their property because they couldn't take it with them, correct?" "That's correct, but not my fault." "That's correct, but not my fault." "Was Heydrich for the emigration of Jews?" "Yes, but he wasn't the initiator." "Yes, but he wasn't the initiator." "Were you the initiator?" "Were you the initiator?" "Yes, I was one of the initiators." "I was one of the initiators." "Who else?" "Who else?" "The father of the idea, in those days, was... the SS officer von Mildenstein." "In today's Germany," "Mr. von Mildenstein represents an important American beverage company." "But that's only incidental." "Look at what she kept." "What is this?" ""Gerda Tuchler."" "Letters from 1935." "I'm not going to read them." "Sorry." ""Rosenberg."" "Letters from all their friends." "All dead now." ""Dr. and Mrs. Kurt Tuchler."" ""Gerda von Mildenstein."" ""Wuppertal."" "Could be his wife." "I guess so." "Unbelievable." " From when?" " There's no date." "And no letter inside." "Hallo?" ""Dear von Mildenstein..."" ""Many thanks for..." ""the books..." ""beautiful photos and letters... I'll send you more soon..."" "is this picture for sale?" "There's also a picture of the grandmother." "There are two portraits." "Ask her if she'd sell it." "What's next?" "Would you sell these portraits?" "No." "Not at any price?" "I can offer you... for everything..." "200 or 210 dollars." "I can sell these for 500 shekels..." " l'll give you half." " Really...?" "That's ridiculous." "To be honest, for everything in here, I can offer you..." "1,000 Shekels, tops." "It's a good offer." "I went to see her mostly because I missed my grandmother... and I wanted to hear German." "So I'd visit her." "Be warned, Gerda didn't like to talk, so I used to take notes on little scraps of paper." "This is about her mother." "It was hard to talk about that." "She said her mother came to this country in 1937 as a tourist." "When I asked her why didn't she stay, she said she had to put some things in order." "She was worried about her job in Germany." "Also, she didn't want to become a nuisance." "Gerda boarded the ship with her and cried, "Mother, don't go!"" "But her mother insisted and left." "This is all I have about her mother." "I don't know the rest, and didn't dare ask." "Why?" "Painful issues... I just let her tell what she wanted." "As you know, one could feel it when she didn't want to talk." "What about her mother's death?" "Did she say it was natural?" "She was very sad, but I don't remember more." "When we spoke, I didn't think of her mother as a Holocaust victim." "She said, "My mother died." She didn't say, "She perished."" "She didn't use those terms." " She didn't say anything about..." " How she died?" "No." "No." "Looking back, I realize they simply repressed it." "Why else didn't they talk about it when we're growing up?" "She had just repressed it." "I guess she felt uncomfortable about the whole thing." "But why didn't you ask about your grandmother?" "I don't know." "I really don't." "I didn't know who to ask about it." "They've never mentioned it." "Look, here are all the cousins..." "Don't you want to talk about her?" "I have no feelings for her." "I've never met her." "Grandpa's parents died of old age, nothing to do with the Holocaust." "My other grandfather too." "About Grandma, they said she didn't want to stay here, and they didn't know what's become of her." " They told you that?" " Yes." "To this day, I don't know where she died or how, whether she was murdered or... I want to show you..." "This is from a book listing the names of all the German Jews killed in the Holocaust." ""Lehmann, Susanne..."" "She moved to Riga." " lt means that in..." " January 1942..." "She was deported to Riga." " Where did you find this?" " At Yad Va'Shem." "Did Grandma know this?" "I wasn't aware of that." "Do you think she knew?" "I don't know." "I found letters from her..." ""My loved ones," ""l'm well, but it is very cold here." ""l'll be in the shop starting December 1st..."" "No. "Come December 1st, I won't be in the shop anymore."" "Here she writes," ""l hope sweet little Hannah remembers her grandma."" "And that she hoped she'd get to see us again." "I'm not at all sure it was from her." "It's not from her." "I don't know..." "There was another Hannah in the family." "Maybe..." "No." "I don't think it was from her." "Here she writes..." "That I shouldn't forget her and that I shouldn't grow up too fast so that my clothes would still fit me." "It had to be from her." "It was in the batch." "Well, maybe." ""My beloved Hannah..."" "She asks me to keep on praying for my grandma," "because..." "God will help us." "I shouldn't stop praying, so that God will help us." " Did you pray for her?" " No." "No." "Here, "l'm thinking of you," ""Stay well..." ""l wish you all well, you and your dear children." "Love..."" "Ah." "Susi." "Yes, that's her." "It's her." "Interesting." "It's open!" " Gertrude?" " Yes." "My make-up isn't right." "You always bring me flowers." "There's no need." "Grandma taught me never to come empty-handed." "She was right!" "Gerda was a nice person, kind and pleasant." " And him?" " He was..." "This is somewhere abroad." "They always used to go to Germany or to Vienna." "Places I never went to." "You never went to Germany?" "What for?" "That was a topic Gerda and I never discussed." "Why not?" "Because I couldn't forgive, and I wasn't..." ""German to the core," as they used to say." "I was an Israeli." "Luckily." "I've made my homeland here." " What about Grandma?" " Not really." "Neither did Kurt." "Look how lovely she's always looked." "What did she tell you about her mother?" "She just said that they took her away... and murdered her." "In a Latvian Ghetto..." "They took the Jews from Berlin fairly late." "In 1942, I think." "And they "disappeared," meaning they were murdered." "We, including my mother- she didn't know that her grandmother was murdered." "That's possible." "Gerda may not have told them." "Why?" "In Germany, only third-generation Germans have started with the questions." "The second generation, they didn't ask what's happened." "You don't understand this, and I'm very happy you don't." "They had a friend... a former Nazi officer by the name of von Mildenstein." "The one who traveled here?" ""A Nazi Travels to Palestine?"" "Yes." "He was a friend of theirs?" "He was a journalist for Der Angriff." "I wouldn't accompany a German who wrote for Der Angriff." "It was the worst Nazi newspaper ever." "What did Grandma tell you about it?" "Just the story itself, that they had accompanied him and about the articles." "That was all." "Did she tell you whether they kept in touch later on?" "With him?" "After the war?" "I don't think so." "Truth is, I'm amazed." "It was so unlike them." "Why?" "It was unlike my dad." "Your grandpa... I'm surprised he agreed to meet him in light of what he knew." "How did they meet in the first place?" "They met at that first journey to Palestine." "It's amazing that they looked for him and visited him..." "He probably said he'd had no choice;" "he wasn't involved." "He must have tried to... to picture himself as a saint." "He may have tried that, but Grandpa was a judge, after all." "Yes, he was." "What did his daughter tell you?" "I've some questions left." "Maybe if you join me next time, you could help me understand..." "What had really happened." "All clear?" "Arnon?" "Hi." " Hannah?" " Yes. I'm here." "Hello." " Hello." " Hello." " Hello, Manu." " Hello." " Hello." " Hello." "Please come in!" "This is it..." "Hannah?" "What?" "Would you live here?" "No." "Not here." "I like it where l live." "But I would like to visit more often." "This is Paula's old house." "Yes?" "I didn't know." "45 Ginzel Street." "It says: "Paula Bernstein," ""born Lehmann, lived here." ""Born in 1867, deported to Theresienstadt in 1942, and murdered December 1942."" "Nice neighborhood." "It's a very quiet, pleasant residential area." "Look." "That's 55 lnnsbrucker Street." "Susi lived here." " Really?" " Yes." " Here?" " Yes." "That's the address." " Susi Lehmann." " How do you know that?" "Arnon told me." "That Susi lived here?" "So my mother also lived here?" "Yes, Gerda lived here as a child." " Really?" " Yes." "Not in this house, of course." "The old house was destroyed." " But this is the address." " Yes." " Unbelievable, eh?" " Amazing, yes." " But no Stolperstein." " Yes..." "You could do one." "Yes, maybe." "We could do it together, next year or..." "How did they receive you when you visited them?" "Very kindly." "Did you say, "Where"?" "No." " They were very nice." " Really?" "Very friendly." "Question is, what should we tell them?" "I think we should act as normal as possible." "Then we'll see how things go." "My question is, should we actually say the word "Nazi"?" "On one hand, we know he was a Nazi." "On the other hand, I don't know whether it would be nice to verbalize it." "I don't know how things stand in Germany today." "Whether people are ashamed of it." "Do they see it as a blemish?" "How do they see it?" "I'm certain they see it as a blemish." "So we won't verbalize the actual word." "We'll just ask what he did then without saying the very word." "We don't want to come across as if we know something and we've come to interrogate." "We're not going there to tell them," ""Listen, we know something you don't."" "Why should we?" "But why not?" "Because it's none of our business." "Our only concern is our own family." "Why mention things that only concern them?" "Would you tell your friend that his father's a murderer if he doesn't know that?" "What for?" "Here are the Tuchlers." "September 21 , 1933." ""Dinner with Mrs. Tuchler."" ""A walk with Dr. Tuchler."" ""At Cafe Vienna."" ""Phoned Mrs. Tuchler."" ""Ate at lgel."" ""Ate at lgel."" ""Tuchlers' departure." "November 23, 1936."" "That was it." "You'll shoot a hole in that." "Mazel tov!" "Mazel tov!" "Whenever I need anything, I turn to him." "That interests us." "When I find something, I copy it and I say, "Edda, look at this."" "Here and there, you encounter the name "von Mildenstein."" "During the war, what... what did Baron von Mildenstein do?" "I've no knowledge of that." " He's too young to know." " But from the books?" "I haven't found anything, at least not in the ones I've read." "Was he in the army?" "I didn't find anything." "If he says he didn't, he didn't." "There's a book that was published in which all, let's us call them "relevant" Germans," "starting with... the highest ranking generals down to functionaries, et cetera, are listed." "In this book, Edda's father is mentioned." "The book is divided into categories according to occupations." "As far as I remember, he was listed as "journalist."" "So... I would say, "clean as a whistle."" "So concerning this issue, everything is okay." "No. I didn't." "He said that he knows this person, that they are in good relations, and that their wives get along well." "They traveled together..." "That's more or less all he told me about his personal life." "He was more concerned about his career in the SS, and that was the main topic of our talk." "Clearly, if you are a press officer at Coca-Cola, things can get ugly when people suddenly find out that you were in the SS." "No." "At that time, they weren't concerned about it." "You have to remember, it was 1961 ." "Nobody wanted to hear that somebody had been in the SS." "For example, if you look up what Coca-Cola wrote... to commemorate von Mildenstein's 60th birthday, that's one sweet little biography." "Nobody would ever imagine this man had any connection to the SS." "There were lots of holes in it." "There are no traces of Mildenstein in the SS after 1937." "I haven't seen any." "And I've rummaged through many files." "They don't exist." "A man like Mildenstein is educated." "He knows the world." "He's fluent in many languages..." "He'd consider himself a highly educated man." "With... a Jew... who had a similar education and was on his own level intellectually, he'd have lively, pleasant conversations." "And he would always separate between the two, saying," ""lt is my duty as a National Socialist" ""to free Germany and Europe of the Jews," ""and here I have this individual Jew," ""who, of course, will have to go one day," ""but I can have good conversations with him, and I can have a good contact with him."" "The question how was it possible that after the war the Tuchlers and the Mildensteins have renewed their relationship... might have... more to do with Tuchler than with von Mildenstein." "What did Tuchler know about Mildenstein?" "What did Mildenstein tell him?" "Even for a persecuted Jew, it's important- if you've lived in Germany for so long, your family lived here for centuries, you yourself lived here for decades, and then that country wants to expel you," "you find it unbearable to imagine that all Germans want to expel you, that all Germans are like the Nazis and they want to expel you." "You find this again and again, in many documents:" "There must be at least one good German" "who keeps in touch with you, who accepts you as a human being, who talks to you eye to eye, who listens to you, and treats you like a human being." "I think it's straight on...." "And then left, somewhere..." "That sign says, "P7." ls there a "P7"?" "Yes, here it is." "There's "A7" and "B7."" "This is "B7."" "Here's "A4."" "Grandma could've asked to have something written on her grave in memory of her mother, who doesn't even have a grave." " Right?" " Right." "What do you think she'd say if she knew you came to visit?" "I think she'd say, "The nerve!" "What are you doing here?" "This is none of your business!"" "What would she think about it...?" "How do you feel about her now?" "Because she didn't tell me about it?" "Yes." "I'm surprised now, but back then..." "But now that we're uncovering all the secrets, disregarding what she'd forbidden..." "Well... ln retrospect, I should have done that more often." "I should've disregarded her "no-nos" much more often." "But it doesn't really move me." "I can't say it does." "Does it bother you that you aren't moved?" "I can't say if it bothers me or not." "It bothers me." "It bothers me that you aren't moved by what we're seeing here." " lt does?" " Yes." "It's even making me sad that you..." "That I react with no..." "Listen." "Either you have it, or you don't." "It's not something you acquire or pretend to have." "Are you going the right way?" "Hold on." " l saw "Q4" over there." " "Q4."" "Here it is." "Started raining again." "One, two, three, four." "Let's say this is one, two..." " No, this is three." " Three." "Nothing." "There's nothing here." "Nothing in this row." "I didn't think we wouldn't find it." "Neither did I." "It must be here somewhere." "There used to be many graves here, and now they're all gone."