Like many other Israelis of her generation, Yael Reuveny has lived in Berlin for many years – even though her family in Jerusalem is still perplexed by her decision (“What are you looking for in the diaspora?”) But Yael doesn’t want anything to do with old stories and history; she wants to decide freely where she calls home. In the course of her documentary film FAREWELL, HERR SCHWARZ, it becomes clear, however, that three generations after the Shoah this “freely” made decision is illusory. History won’t let Yael go, so she searches for traces of her family by interviewing people in Israel and Germany in the same quiet yet persistent manner.
At the centre of the family story is Reuveny’s charismatic great-uncle Feiv’ke, who survived the Holocaust but disappeared in the chaos of the last days of the war. The young director peels back the layers of this family legend until she discovers that her great-uncle stayed in East Germany, changed his name from Feiv’ke to Peter, married, and lived the rest of his life where he was once a prisoner. Former camp guards became neighbours and instead of talking about the past, all looked towards building a “better Germany.”
Once again the old wisdom has proven to be true that life writes the strangest stories. In her search for answers Yael Reuveny is tenacious and uses her camera like an X-ray machine to delve deeper into the layers of German-Israeli history. It is hard to believe that it took over 50 years before some one dared to ask these questions. Maybe the historical distance was necessary in order to even understand the answers. FAREWELL, HERR SCHWARZ is a moving film that is still able to capture the grey tones that accompany our life decisions despite the pictures saturated in colour.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Translation: Carla MacDougall