en

CHILDREN OF AUGUSTSTREET

Language: DE | EN

A documentary by Nadja Tenge
and Sally Jaber

Our documentary Ahawah - Children of August Street has been selected for the 21. Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Potsdam 2015.

World premiere on Tuesday, 19. May 2015 at 8 pm in cinema Babylon in Berlin.

In the context of:

21. Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Potsdam 2015 from 10.-20. May 2015

50 years Germany-Israel relations

A short welcoming speech at the beginning of the event will be held by Ursula Schmidt, the vice president of the German Bundestag.

For more information please visit: www.jffb.de/en/filme/ahawah/

Synopsis

Technical details

Synopsis "Ahawah - Children of August Street"

Ahawah is in Hebrew and it means love. The documentary tells the story of the former Jewish Children’s Home Ahawah and the former Jewish Girls' School on August Street, from its beginnings in the 1920's, up to its end during the Nazi dictatorship. The film also tells of magnificent people who focused with enthusiasm and dedication on the promotion of Jewish children as a ray of hope for a more equitable future. The facilities were among the most advanced of their time. The children were not raised to be subjects, but to be people with free will and decision-making ability. The new concept was based on love, unity, participation and the individual development of children. The story leads from Berlin August Street to Israel, where the concept of the founders lives on even after the Nazi terror.

During the various stages of the cinematic journey, former pupils of the Girls’ School and the 96-year-old Ahawah offspring David Marcus meet pupils of a Protestant school in Berlin. The elderly witnesses vividly describe the place of their childhood as a paradise amidst the Nazi hell. The Berlin author Regina Scheer (‘Ahava: The Forgotten House’, ‘Machandel’) reports about her years of research on the August Street and her encounters with people who lived here.

In Israel

Israel. The Ahawah Village in Kiriat Bialik, a former German settlement in the north of the country, is a place where many of the Ahawah children found refuge with their educators in 1934. Here they established a new Home, which is now one of the most advanced in Israel. The Children's Home Neve Hanna is in Kiriat Gat, 250 km further south, in one of the poorest regions of the country. The Berlin Jew and Ahawah-educator Hanna Ullmann and the principal of the former Jewish Girls’ School Hanna Kaphan founded it in 1974. Jewish immigrant children from broken families find a new home here. The circle seems to shut. What emerged on August Street through an initiative by Jewish, idealistic people at that time, continues in Israel to this day: Giving children a place where they receive all the respect and love in order to be free and happy.

Specifications of the movie

Length: 60 minutes

Colour: Colour and b/w

Format: 16:9

Sound: Stereo

Age recommendation: 6+

Language: German with English subtitles

Supporters

With the documentary ‘Ahawah – Children of August Street’, the filmmakers Nadja Tenge and Sally Jaber present their debut film.

Together they realised various multimedia theatre projects in recent years, which thematically revolved around the fate of Jewish survival children during the Nazi period and children in violent conflicts. The idea of making a documentary together was born.

Nadja Tenge, born in 1970, completed her acting studies at the Berlin School of Drama. Since 1995 Nadja Tenge has worked as a freelance actress, director and voice over artist. Since 2002 she designed and realized documentary theatre projects that set the focus on human rights issues. She continually makes use of historical themes and explores the significance of the past for the present.

Sally Jaber, born in 1982 in Baghdad, studied performance art at the Academy of Performing Arts Maastricht (NL) and Communication & Multimedia Design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam (NL). In 2008-2009 she continued developing her skills at the artists' residency in Groningen, where she staged her first professional performance at the Grand Theatre, and was engaged as an actress with the Noord Nederlands Toneel and Peer group. Since 2009 she lives and works in Berlin and works as a freelance actress, performance, video and installation artist, voice over artist and singer. www.sallyjaber.com

contact: info[ät]ahawah-doku.de

David

Marcus

Ruth Winkelmann

R. Steinitz
R. Malin

Regina

Scheer

Pupils

David Marcus - a pupil of the former Children's Home Ahawah

David Marcus was born in 1917 in Poznan, in present-day Poland. His parents came to Berlin shortly afterwards in the hope of building a better life.

At the age of three, David Marcus was brought to the Children’s Home Ahawah together with his brother Herrmann. The mother could no longer care for her children; the father disappeared. Since then David lived in the Ahawah. At that time he suffered from the English disease and had crooked legs, so the other children from the Home always carried him on their backs until he was operated. His legs were henceforth straight and he could walk like all the others.

In 1934 David was on the list with 34 children who were allowed to emigrate to Palestine.

Together with his wife Miriam and his children, David returned to Berlin in the 1960s. He is now 96 years old and lives in Berlin Charlottenburg.

Ruth Winkelmann - former pupil of the Jewish Girls’ School

Ruth Winkelmann, born with the name Sachs, was born in 1928 as daughter of a Jewish father and a Christian mother in Berlin.

The mother converted to Jewish faith and Ruth was declared as a person legally considered a Jew according to the Nazi racial laws. Most of her Jewish family members, including her grandparents and her father, were deported and murdered.

At the age of merely 14, after the closure of the Jewish Girls' School on August Street, she is forced into labour at the Nazi uniform factory Michalski.

Ruth Winkelmann was in the collection point camp at Grosse Hamburger Street several times, but she could escape from the transportation every time. Sometimes it was by luck, but often it was the help of Jewish and non-Jewish Berliners who spared her from deportation. Ruth Winkelmann lives in the Berlin district of Reinickendorf.

The twin sisters Regina Steinitz and Ruth Malin - former pupils of the Jewish Girls’ School

The twin sisters Ruth Malin and Regina Steintz, born with the name Anders, were born in 1930 in Berlin-Mitte as daughters of a Christian mother and a Polish-Jewish father. Altogether the family had four children, two sons and two daughters. The father left the country in 1938 and went to his siblings in the United States. The mother died of tuberculosis in January 1940. Regina and Ruth got into to the Jewish Children's Home on Fehrbelliner street 92. After the home was closed in 1942, foster parents adopted them. Shortly thereafter, the family received a call to go to the collection point at Grosse Hamburger Street.

The older brother Theo was able to emigrate to England on a children’s transport. The younger brother Benno was deported to Auschwitz. He survived the concentration camp.

Thanks to the maternal non-Jewish family, which adopted the twin girls, Ruth and Regina were able to escape deportation. In 1948 the sisters emigrated to Israel, got married and built a new life. Today they live in Tel Aviv.

Regina Scheer, author

Regina Scheer, born in 1950 in Berlin, studied Theatre and Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She then worked as a freelance editor, journalist and historian. Since the late 1970's Regina Scheer has been doing research for her book ‘Ahava: The Forgotten House’. It was finally published in 1992 at Aufbau Publishing. Other publications by the author are ‘Es gingen Wasser wild über unsere Seele’ (Aufbau Publishing, 1999), ‘We are the Liebermanns. The story of a family’ (Propyläen Publishing, 2006). Her first novel, ‘Machandel’ is published in 2014. Regina Scheer lives in Berlin.

Students of the Protestant School in Berlin - Mitte

Aimée Abulzahab, Albrecht Felsmann, Amon Mandalka, Angelina Wunsch, Aruna Berger, Daniel Uhlich, Emma Gill, Fiona Dürr, Ida Zinnen, Leonhard El Mimouni, Marlene Kröber, Marlene Wenzel, Noemi auf der Heidt, Oke Duschel, Oskar Schönharting

15 children aged between 11-14 years live and learn in today's Berlin-Mitte. During their regular school hours at the Protestant School Berlin-Centre they accompany the cinematic search for clues on August Street. Just like the Ahawah and the former Jewish Girls’ School, the Protestant School is a reform school with a holistic approach to learning and interdisciplinary teaching.

Crowdfunding donators:

Ulf Hundeiker, Nastja Nefjodov, Dr. Dorit Felsch, Ulrich Nicklaus, Franka Kühn, Barbara Zoschke, Silke Gahleitner, Christian Böse, Evelyne Kühni, Erika Tkocz, Stephan Erfurt, Stephane Querrec, Floris Didden, David Croft, Yorick Niess, Hannah Stockmann, Sigrid Rehfeld, Helene Rehfeld, Kerstin Westendorf, Anja Eifeler, Tim Koch,Waltraud Felsch, Jürgen Bianchi, Christine Schmidt, Ulrike Wruck, Anna Bickenbach, Niklas Hofmann, Ana Pessanha, Friederike Meißner, I. Bliek, Chrissi Winterfeld, Katharina Schmidt, Amelie Döge, Anna Sive, Thomas Leiberg, Kai Berger, Berit Schweska, Karin Schröer, Dr. Dean Grunwald, Matthias Wriedt, Agnessa Nefjodov, Robert Kruschel, Magdalena Bratch, Ursula Paugstadt, Janka Berger, Anna Mandalka, Claudia Hofer, Alejandra Theus, Achim Großmann, Torsten Mandalka, Heike Roesner, Ursula Hansen

Supported by:

Foundation "Remembrance, Responsability and Future"

In cooperation with::

Kulturinitiative Förderband GgmbH

Förderband e.v.

Contravision Medienwerkstatt

Evangelische Schule Berlin - Zentrum

Friendly support by:

Aviva Berlin

Israel Nachrichten

St. Hedwigs Krankenhaus

Babylon Mitte