Film tells of a Berlin family's struggle of living under Nazi regime

A film telling the story of a Jewish family who were stripped of their everyday possessions under the Nazi regime will be screened on Remembrance Day (Monday 11 November) at the University of South Wales (USW).

Four Parts of a Folding Screen is an experimental documentary film by Dr Ian Wiblin, senior lecturer in Photography at USW, and filmmaker Anthea Kennedy, who is the granddaughter of the central character, Nellie Koch.

After learning that her husband cannot return home from a trip abroad, due to an arrest warrant, Nellie must also leave Nazi Germany, but must first sell their beloved home in Berlin and arrange for its contents to be put into storage, and eventually sent to the UK, where the family intended to emigrate.

However, during World War Two, the Nazis stole and auctioned off vast amounts of Jewish-owned property to generate funds for the war effort. Because of this, Nellie's and her family's possessions were auctioned off to wealthy Germans – meaning that, in spite of all she had tried to arrange, her property never arrived in the UK.

Ian and Anthea, who have been making films together for two decades, were able to source archived documents that show how the auctions worked and where Nellie’s possessions eventually ended up.

“We’re not talking about expensive items,” said Ian. “They were just everyday objects, including a folding screen that had broken into four parts, which is where the title of the film came from.

“We use the film to convey the level of oppression that Anthea’s family faced under the Nazi regime, showing what it meant for them when certain Nazi laws were introduced that curtailed the movements of Jews in society.

“It tells of the moment they realised they needed to get out, and the bureaucratic processes that forced them to part with their possessions, and even stripped them of their German citizenship.

“Many families were affected by this, and have been unable to claim proper compensation for their lost possessions. We have documents that show how the German authorities tried to find ways to reduce the amount of money that needed to be paid back – notes in the margins of the family's submitted compensation papers, for example, that questioned the value of certain items.”

The film is the second in a trilogy of documentaries made in Berlin, that are all connected with Anthea’s family. The first, The View from Our House, tells the story of Anthea’s aunt, Erika Koch, who was an aspiring young photographer but was unable to study photography because she was Jewish.

It tells how she heard screaming coming from a building in Berlin, where she lived, in 1933 – the building was later discovered to be a prison used by the SA Field Police (a Nazi secret police unit predating the formation of the Gestapo) to brutalise anti-fascists. As a way of documenting her life in the city, the film includes some of the images Erika made, as she later became an assistant to well-known photographers Otto Umbehr and Hein Gorny.

The third film, Alarm Notes, is in the final stages of production and focuses on Nellie’s husband, Ludwig Koch, who worked for a gramophone company in Berlin. It tells the story of how the company became Aryanized and left him with no choice but to flee Germany.

Ludwig started recording sounds and voices in 1889 when he was a child, but later became known for the innovative ways in which he recorded and used sound – particularly birdsong –during his time working at the BBC. His recordings established the BBC’s library of natural history sounds and he became a household name as a nature broadcaster.

"The films are not just about my family," said Anthea. "They are intended to relate to wider historical events and to the plight of those suffering as refugees today."

The screening of Four Parts of a Folding Screen, which takes place at USW’s Cardiff Campus, will start at 6pm and will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers, as well as members of the Welsh Refugee Council and the Jewish History Association of South Wales. The session aims to place the themes and content of the film in context with contemporary experiences of exclusion and exile.

To book your place at the screening, visit Eventbrite.

This event is part of Being Human Festival – the UK’s national festival of the humanities – which takes place from 7–16 November. For more details, visit beinghumanfestival.org.