Films by Britta Wauer

Germany 2016, 90 min
by Britta Wauer, Kaspar Köpke

William Wolff was born in Berlin, carries a British passport and lives in a bungalow near London. Now nearly 90, he still works as State Rabbi in north-eastern Germany. His regular midweek commute takes him from Heathrow to Hamburg, and on to his Jewish communities in Schwerin and Rostock. After Saturday services, it's back home, unless he's visiting relatives in Jerusalem, going on a fasting retreat or placing a bet at Royal Ascot. Willy Wolff says, "life has to be fun". RABBI WOLFF is not only entertaining, but also eye-opening and inspiring. With humour and charm, it gives an honest, intimate insight into the world of Judaism.52mins or 90min original German/English/Russian/Hebrew/Dutch version with English subtitles available

Germany 2011, 90 min
by Britta Wauer

Morning dew and fog, high trees and thickets. Among them are columns, stones, mausoleums, ivy, lilac and a small fox running across the path - the cemetery of Berlin’s Jewish community. Weissensee is Europe’s biggest Jewish cemetery, which is still open for new burials. It is now 130 years old - and was never been destroyed. Not only the cemetery survived, but also its archives - a paradise for treasure hunters.

Germany 2008
by Britta Wauer

In the beginning was a broken taboo: the boy Knut asked his 'aunt Gerda' from Amerika who was on a visit to the GDR what had become of her childthat nobody ever dared to mention. Horrified silence around the coffeetable. Knut felt confused and ashamed - he would never forget this sunday afternoon. 30 years later, Knut Elstermann sees Gerda in New York and asksthe same question again. She tells him about close family ties and friendshipsof the pre-war era, about Jewish friends and aquaintances' survival, but also about deportation and death. It is the story of a search for truth in files,in testimonies of contemporary witnesses and her memory.Filmmaker Britta Wauer followed up Gerda's story. Based on Gerda's encounterwith Knut, his persistent questions which finally got an answer, shecreates, with great respect and unmistakable affection for her protagonist, the portrait of a woman who with a defiant courage to face life built a new life for herself afterAuschwitz. The starting point of this new life was her silence about the end of the old one - a silencewhich Gerda never broke, even with her son Steven, until her conversations with Knut Elstermann. http://www.gerdas-schweigen.de