Anne Frank Documentary Film Showing
By Sophie Yaron
For my project, I needed to do something manageable, seeing as I was going to
be in Germany, rather than my home in England, for my year abroad.
Therefore, I decided to show the Anne Frank documentary film to one of my
new classes. The class is called ‘Landeskunde’ and it is a lesson aimed at
improving our knowledge of German culture and history. In fact, for many
weeks, we were learning
about
National
Socialism. I realised that
this would be the
perfect opportunity.
I played the film to a
class at the University of
Würzburg, where I am
currently studying and
living. My class consists
of a diverse mix of
people: from all over the
world, and yet with one similar aim: to improve our German.
On the 25th of November, I played the film to my class. However, I started with
an introduction, to give it a context. Firstly, I spoke about the fact that we were
discussing National Socialism in class, and that this period of history is of
particular importance to me. Then I explained that my family were directly
impacted by this time: that my very own Grandmother, Eva Schloss, is a
Holocaust Survivor. It is important here to mention that I was not speaking in
English, rather in German. This made it a bit harder for me to voice everything I
wished, but also it made it much more interesting for everyone. The fact that
my history is so linked to the negative parts of German history, and yet I speak
and study German!
Then I moved on to showing people photos and information about my
Grandmother, so that they could put a face to the name. Then, I began to talk
about my own work with the Anne Frank Foundation and what I did in
Amsterdam. This showed everyone that there is a link between my past and
the work I do now, and it also showed people that there is a huge world out
there that is addressing the situation.
After this, I showed the documentary film. I must admit that I had forgotten to
mention a very large point: that my Grandmother and Anne Frank knew each
other and that Otto Frank married my great Grandmother after the war.
However, with hindsight, I think the way it worked was for the best.
I showed the film, which lasted half an hour. The, at the end, I stood up and
went to the front of the class again. I wanted to start by mentioning the very
significant fact I had forgotten to mention before. When I explained the link to
Anne Frank, people looked stunned and fascinated. It was as if I had pulled
back many layers to history, and enabled people to gain an incredibly authentic
insight into this time. A class mate told me that she thought it was the best
way to tell people: that I had a link to Anne Frank was kept until after the film
and therefore did not influence people’s viewing of the film.
I then held a discussion. I started with the question: ‘have any of you
experienced racism in your lives?’ with differing responses from different
countries, and I
was happy to
hear that no
one reported it,
however were
aware of the
ever
present
discrimination
in society. The
discussion led
to Germany in
the
present
day: I told
people that here in Würzburg, I feel that our generation do not want to talk
about the war anymore, in particular the young German people. This was just
something I had felt. Then we discussed this and my teacher, who is a German,
was very interested and said we should continue this theme for many more
weeks. It appeared that this video was an excellent way to address issues and
enable people to come out and share their opinions.
I was happy to hear that people found this talk interesting. In fact one
classmate posted on Facebook that she had just had one of the most
interesting lessons in her life.
I will certainly show this film again and people have asked me to play it in other
classes. I will organise it a bit better and tailor it to each particular class.