A blind hero - Otto Weidt's love

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Movie
Original title A blind hero - Otto Weidt's love
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2014
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Kai Christiansen
script Heike Brückner from Grumbkow
Jochen von Grumbkow
production Vincent TV GmbH
music Hans Peter Ströer
camera Jan Kerhart
cut Barbara Toennieshen
occupation

A blind hero - Otto Weidt's love is a German feature film that combines original historical recordings from the Second World War with scenes from the game, speeches and comments by Inge Deutschkron . The film by director Kai Christiansen was made in 2013 as a co-production between NDR , WDR , RBB , HR . It is based on the true story of the brush manufacturer Otto Weidt , who during the Nazi era managed to protect the small Jewish workforce of his Berlin company from deportation and the Holocaust for a long time . Weidt was able to save the lives of some, including Inge Deutschkron and Alice Licht, about whom the film mainly revolves. In 1971 Otto Weidt was posthumously honored with the title Righteous Among the Nations for his deeds .

The film was first broadcast on January 6, 2014 on ARD .

action

The film begins in 1941 in Weidts' Berlin brush factory at Rosenthaler Strasse 39, Berlin-Mitte: The Gestapo is in the house and is harassing the Jewish workforce. Weidt pretended to do so, but was able to bribe the Gestapo officer to let the employees of the "war-important company" work for him until further notice. Similar scenes are repeated, whereby Weidt always knows how to preserve the lives of his Jewish employees through a mixture of deception, drama, flattery, apparent submissiveness, persistence, cunning and bribery towards the Gestapo, who returns more and more often. Weidt's ability to protect himself in front of them earned him the name "Papa Weidt".

In addition to some blind and visually impaired people, his employees also include the Jews Inge Deutschkron and Alice Licht. A love story develops between Licht, who is around 35 years younger than Weidt, and her married employer.

The living conditions for Jews became worse and worse over time, and at the same time the National Socialist apparatus of repression became more and more efficient with regard to the extermination of Jews . One day, when Weidt is not at his company, the Gestapo picks up all employees except Deutschkron and Licht to deport them. Weidt managed to save them one last time from certain death, but now they only had the option of hiding, whereby Weidt helped again and provided living space and food. However, the hiding place is exposed by a Jew who betrays his co-religionists to the Gestapo. Everyone is deported - except for Deutschkron, who goes into hiding with friends with her mother and thus survived the Holocaust, and Alice, whose parents were deported. Weidt tries to free the parents, but the only promise he can get from the Gestapo is that the parents will not be sent to Auschwitz if the daughter volunteers and then be deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp with her parents . Desperate, Alice turns to save her parents from certain death.

Over a long period of time, Weidt sent around 150 food parcels to the Theresienstadt concentration camp via bogus addresses, thus ensuring the survival of the Licht family. One day he receives a postcard that comes to him through an unknown route. Alice then writes that she - without her parents - is on the way to Auschwitz. Weidt immediately sets off for occupied Poland to free his lover.

He pretends to be a war-blind representative of his Berlin brush company to concentration camp personnel, but is turned away. Weidt is not deterred, however: When he learns that Alice has been transferred to the subcamp of the Groß-Rosen concentration camp in Christianstadt , he follows her. He rents a room in the town near the concentration camp and persuades the landlady to have a suitcase, cash and the room ready for Alice Licht. When the camp is disbanded because of the approaching Russians, Alice manages to escape. She found the room, received a suitcase and money, and finally arrived at Weidt and his wife in Berlin at the beginning of January 1945. After the end of the war, Alice Licht emigrates to the USA because Germany is no longer her home and she doesn't even know where her parents died. Weidt initially still believes in a common future, but this will not come true. They will never see each other again.

The film ends with a real scene from the present: Inge Deutschkron goes to Weidt's grave of honor at the Zehlendorf cemetery and lays a bouquet of flowers there. In the credits , the viewer finally learns what happened to Otto Weidt, his wife, Alice Licht and the entire staff of the workshop for the blind : Weidt died of a heart attack in 1947, his wife died on June 8, 1974 in Berlin, Alfred Levi was born on June 23 Deported in February 1943, after which his track is lost. Werner Basch was murdered on January 19, 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp . Rosa Katz was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau on December 9, 1942 , as was her colleague Chaim Horn, who died there on October 14, 1943. Alice Licht died in Israel on October 30, 1986 .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Gehringer: TV film "A blind hero - The love of Otto Weidt" on tittelbach.tv, accessed on January 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ A blind hero - The love of Otto Weidt. In: hoerfilmev.de. Retrieved March 3, 2020 .
  3. ↑ 13th German Audio Film Award 2015. In: www.deutscher-hoerfilmpreis.de. Retrieved March 3, 2020 .