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Screening of "Two Trees in Jerusalem" & Talk with Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen on November 8 in Berlin

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Humanity in Action Germany, JUMA e.V. and the Stiftung Weltethos are happy to invite you to the special event “Erinnerungskultur Neu Denken – Unerzählte Geschichten aus der NS-Zeit und ihren Nachwirkungen”, taking place on the eve of the 84th Remembrance Day of the November 1938 Pogrom, also known as Kristallnacht. 

The first part of the event will include a screening of the animated short film, ‘Zwei Bäume in Jerusalem” (Two Trees in Jerusalem) followed by a talk and Q&A with Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen, Honorary Chair of Humanity in Action Germany, the protagonist of the film and the author of the same-name book on which it is based. 

The second part will include a reading from the new book “Brauner Boden: Ein jüdischer Blick auf die deutsche Aufarbeitung der NS-Zeit” (Brown Ground: A Jewish View of the German Reappraisal of the Nazi Era) and a talk with author Zachary Gallant, director of the intercultural and interreligious project “Values are One” of the Global Ethic Foundation.

Please note that the language of the event will be GERMAN.

>> When? Tuesday, 08.11.2022, at 18:30

> Where? Il Kino, Nansenstraße 22, 12047 Berlin

Registration to the event is free but the number of seats is limited.

Please register no later than November 7 via email to m.rozental@humanityinaction.org.

Two Trees in Jerusaleman animated documentary produced by Humanity in Action, profiles the remarkable history of Eberhard and Donata Helmrich, who together saved the lives of countless Jews during the Holocaust. The pair worked as a husband-and-wife team in the eye of the storm, in Berlin and the blood-soaked fields of Eastern Europe, devising ever-more daring gambits to save any life they could, even as death surrounded them. 

The history is dramatically narrated by the couple’s daughter Cornelia, who was called into her parents’ confidence as a young child, and was imbued with an inner-strength that guided her work decades later as a journalist, politician and as the Federal Comissioner for Foreigner’s Affairs. 

By moving back and forth in time, the animated documentary reveals how experiences in Cornelia’s childhood impact her subsequent fight for migrants’ rights in her role as the Federal Commissioner for immigrant and refugee issues during the 1990’s. 

Two Trees in Jerusalem was made with the generous support of the Alfred Landecker Foundation and is the second part of Humanity in Action’s animated trilogy Traces-Portraits of Resistance and Survival, which also includes the films Voices in the Void and My Father’s War.

In view of the resurgence of right-wing extremist sentiments and at a time when unverified information is increasingly taken lightly as indisputable facts, it is essential to once again critically examine the state of reappraisal of the National Socialist era in Germany. The book “Brauner Boden- Ein jüdischer Blick auf die deutsche Aufarbeitung der NS-Zeit” is dedicated to this task and focuses on German entrepreneurship, since reappraisal in this field has been very hesitant to date. Starting from a Jewish perspective on the discrepancy between declarations of intent and lived reality, it is essential that Germany sincerely commits to the much-invoked “Never Again” and follows its words with deeds – in business, politics and civil society.

Program

18:30 Opening remarks: Dennis Kirschbaum, political educator, anti-racism trainer, interfaith activist, slam poet and founder of the youth association JUMA e.V.

18:40 Film screening Zwei Bäume in Jerusalem

19:10 Talk and Q&A with Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen, moderated by Humanity in Action’s Film Project Manager Meital Rozental.

19:30 Short break

19:35 Reading from the book Brauner Boden by author Zachary Gallant and Q&A, moderated by Dennis Kirschbaum.