Experiencing Interruptions?

Shattered - Journey into a silent Past

Britta and Marianne grew up in my hometown Aachen. As a filmmaker I was interested in their fate because in 1937, when the two sisters were 9 and 12 years old they were forced to leave Germany, because they were Jewish, and flee to the United States together with their parents. They landed in the small town Klamath Falls in Oregon and started from zero. In Germany their father Curt Lion had owned a beautiful clothing store named Appelrath-Cüpper and had sold it to my grandfather shortly before the flight. How did the transaction actually take place and were the two businessmen able to avoid 'Nazi-ization' and confiscation of Jewish property?

Together with Britta and Marianne who are today 91 and 93 years old we researched letters, photographs and archives. Britta, who lives in Salem Oregon, and I visited the store which still exists in Aachen and found traces of their relatives who didn't succeed in escaping the Nazis. The siblings are two of hundreds of thousands of Jewish Germans who were expelled from their home country and lost many family members – a widely silenced generation.

  • Walter Wehmeyer
    Director
  • Walter Wehmeyer
    Writer
  • Walter Wehmeyer
    Producer
  • Britta Franz-Lion
    Key Cast
  • Marianne Weil-Lion
    Key Cast
  • Robert H. Horowitz
    Key Cast
  • Walter Wehmeyer
    Camera
  • Walter Wehmeyer
    Editing
  • Klaus Gartner
    Mixing
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Shattered - Reise in eine stille Vergangenheit
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 20 minutes 53 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 26, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany, United States
  • Language:
    English, German
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Northwest Film Centre
    Portland
    United States
    January 28, 2018
    Pre-Screening - not final version
Distribution Information
  • Walter Wehmeyer Filmproduction
    Country: Austria
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Walter Wehmeyer

Walter Wehmeyer was born in 1962 in Aachen, Germany.
Since his graduation from the School of Television and Film Munich in 1996 Walter Wehmeyer realized more than 20 documentaries. Many of them are portraits of artists or films about people and peace activists in conflict zones like Kosovo, Rwanda and the Middle East. In March 2017 his movie „LINA“ was released in Austrian cinemas. The film which he created together with five Viennese filmmakers tells from the young actress Lina and her marriage with the famous architect Adolf Loos in Vienna, 1902-1905. Walter Wehmeyer lives in Vienna since 2000.

https://walterwehmeyer.wordpress.com/english-filmography/

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