#bronsteins kinder

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heller wahn, margarethe von trotta 1983

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[todaviia]

10 Movies about East German Jewishness

In no particular order and just to show diverse viewpoints on Jewishness/Jewish life in East Germany after 1945. These movies are in German unless stated otherwise, though subs may be available.

Familie Brasch (Germany 2018), A documentary about the Jewish Communist Brasch family. Horst Brasch was a founding member of the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend, later the main youth organization of the DDR) and high-ranking East German functionary. He and his wife Gerda had believed that the socialist German state could become a utopia, however, their children struggled against the system. 

Alles auf Zucker! (Germany 2004, English title: Go for Zucker) A comedy set in post-reunification Berlin, Jakob Zuckermann is a struggling, unemployed former East German journalist who doesn’t really identify as Jewish and feels like a “loser of the reunification”. Then his mother dies and sets conditions in her will: he will only get his inheritance if he organizes her funeral together with his estranged brother, who is a very religious Jew from West Germany. Directed by Dani Levy.

Schnee von Gestern (Germany/Israel 2014, English title: Farewell Herr Schwarz) A documentary by Israeli filmmaker Yael Reuveny, who lives in Germany, about her own family story. Her grandmother Michla’s family lived in Vilnius before the Holocaust. Michla and her brother Feivke had made a promise to find each other after the war, but he never showed up, so she assumed he had died. Decades later, his children reach out in search of relatives and it’s discovered that he survived the war but stayed in East Germany under the name Peter Schwarz.

Bronsteins Kinder (Germany 1991) Set in 1973, the movie is about a Jewish family living in East Berlin. Hans, the 18-year old son, discovers that his father keeps his former concentration camp Kapo as a prisoner in their summer home. Based on a novel by East German Jewish author and concentration camp survivor Jurek Becker

Im Himmel, unter der Erde (Germany 2011) A documentary about the Jewish Cemetery in the East Berlin district of Weißensee, which is in use since 1880 and the biggest Jewish Cemetery in Europe.

Rabbi Wolff (Germany 2016) Documentary about William Wolff, born 1927 in Berlin, who escaped the Nazis, settled in London and worked as journalist. He became the Head Rabbi of the East German State of Mecklenburg Vorpommern in 2002, serving the small Jewish community there while still spending most of his time in the UK. The film was made after Rabbi Wolff’s appearance in Im Himmel, unter der Erde.

Schalom neues Deutschland (Germany 2018) Officially, antisemitism had been defeated along with all other forms of fascism in East Germany, but the reality was often different. A documentary about antisemitism in the GDR with a focus on individual biographies.

Meschugge oder was? (Germany 2019) Documentary focusing on Dmitrij Kapitelman from Leipzig and his search for Jewish German identity. He himself is of paternal Jewish descent, not part of any Jewish community and is interviewing various Jews and Converts, among them Elyah Havemann (son of Wolf Biermann), who is now living in Israel because he felt it was impossible to live a fulfilling Jewish life in Germany.

Jakob der Lügner (East Germany 1974, English title Jacob, the Liar) The only movie here that is not set after 1945, but rather in a concentration camp. It was one of the most successful movies in GDR and the only East German movie to be nominated for an Oscar. Based on a novel by East German Jewish author and concentration camp survivor Jurek Becker.

Erinnern heißt Leben (East Germany 1988) A documentary about past and present Jewish life in Communist East Germany. It is unusual on this list in that it is almost impossible to find nowadays. The documentary was filmed by Roza Berger-Fiedler, a Polish-Jewish woman in East Germany. She was a prolific documentary filmmaker for the East German film company DEFA. After the reunification, the Treuhand (the West German fonds that inherited all of the state assets of GDR) considered the materials she had filmed for DEFA to be their property instead of hers, which is why instead of handing it over, she keeps it in her house.

Feel free to add more, this is just an inspiration for interested parties.

Oh and Yoav Sapir published his Magisterarbeit online for free and talks about Judaism in East German film on his blog, too: Die Auflösung der Judenfrage. Das Bild des Juden im Spielfilm der DDR

[themomsandthecity]

It’s Never Too Early to Prepare Your Child For School - Their Future Depends on It

As a mother of a son who "was born with an above-average disregard for authority," Christine Bronstein had a lot on her hands when it was time for her son to start kindergarten. "Needless to say, he had more than a little trouble adjusting to school. He actually walked right out of his preschool during nap time, after he asked the teacher to 'get me outta here.'" The founder of A Band of Women, a social network and information website for women, Christine took the experience and turned it into a children's book, Stewie Boomstein Starts School, the first in a series of books for kids and parents that deals with the transition to kindergarten, a critical moment in a child's life where parents are often in the dark about how best to manage it. Here, she shares her tips for preparing your child for school. Did you know that your child's transition into school is not only an exciting step in growing up, but is also a determinant in your child's future academic performance? A National Institute of Health study showed transition practices a school has in place to smooth a child's initial path into kindergarten were directly correlated to academic achievement by the end of kindergarten. These same transition practices were proven to increase parent involvement and, according to another study, "research has suggested that parent involvement in school activities starting at kindergarten strongly impacts a child's adjustment to school, which can maintain through at least sixth grade." Not to add to any growing anxiety you may have in reading these statistics, but still another study sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics suggests that kids who have unsuccessful transitions into kindergarten are "less likely to catch up . . . and more likely to drop out of school." But this crucial step doesn't have to be overwhelming. In 1998, the National Education Goals Panel made a national push for kindergarten school readiness, and most schools have initiated school readiness practices since then. But these practices require a combined effort, and parents must understand the importance of these events, get informed, and take advantage of transition practices a school has to offer. For example, many transition events such as kindergarten sneak peeks, open houses, and kinder camps happen in the Spring and Summer before kindergarten, well before parents (at least this parent) think they need to start transitioning their child. When my son was starting school, I had no idea that a visit to school the Spring before he started would make such a big difference in his overall academic achievement. Since he seemed to be having such an easy time with learning, I failed to see the importance of the other parts of starting school. But my little guy needed to know more than just his alphabet. He needed to know what his classroom looked like, what his schedule would be, and what the rules were. He needed to know who his teacher would be and what she expected of him. Because I failed to see these things, he entered a new universe where he had no idea what was going to happen next, and he grew really frustrated. Needless to say, he did not have the smoothest transition. I impart these tips to all the overwhelmed parents out there. They are simple, concrete tips you can do without breaking a sweat, I promise. And, luckily for busy parents, it turns out some of the most successful transition practices in determining a child's outcome are not very time-consuming. Source: Flickr user lorenkerns http://bit.ly/2vpRI9Z

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Am Schreibtisch kann ich ein kleines bißchen fliegen

Jurek Becker

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erwin und julia, götz spielmann 1990

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любовь и голуби, vladimir menshov 1984

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