In the summer of 1939 a major enquiry was launched by three professors of the University of Harvard in the United States, addressing Germans who had fled their country since Adolf Hitler came to power. They were to describe their lives in Germany before and after January 30th, 1933, and say why they chose exile. Men and women of all ages, Jews, but also Protestants, Catholics, non-believers, political opponents, resistants of all kinds…
After having witnessed the seizure of absolute power carried out by terror in a few weeks, these Germans of every conviction and every faith lived and observed the ‘bringing into line’ that the entire German society was subjected to – until the terrible ‘Kristallnacht’ in November 1938, 80 years ago. The thousands of pages they covered with their writing and sent from the four corners of the globe have mostly been overlooked until today.
This exceptional survey, carried out in the immediate aftermath, lets us hear for the first time the voices of these women and men who managed to flee the country of the Nazis and gives us the opportunity to better understand this fascinating country through the amateur films shot at that time.