WEBVTT

00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:07.720 align:center line:-1
(Tranquil guitar music)

00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:28.800 align:center line:-1
(Clattering of machines)

00:00:32.800 --> 00:00:36.200 align:center line:-2
<i>(Inge Deutschkron, off screen)</i>
<i>In 1941</i>

00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:39.080 align:center line:-1
<i>the war had been raging for two years.</i>

00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:41.680 align:center line:-1
A lady from the Jewish community

00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:45.160 align:center line:-2
showed me the way
to Otto Weidt's workshop for the blind.

00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:47.120 align:center line:-1
Insiders knew that Weidt

00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:49.640 align:center line:-1
was one of the few employers in Berlin

00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.000 align:center line:-1
who treated Jews well,

00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:54.560 align:center line:-2
in defiance
of all the regulations.

00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.800 align:center line:-1
(Tranquil guitar music)

00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:12.400 align:center line:-2
<i>(Inge Deutschkron)</i>
<i>I entered a sparsely furnished office.</i>

00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:15.240 align:center line:-1
<i>Otto Weidt was sitting at the desk.</i>

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.200 align:center line:-1
<i>He was very thin, even gaunt.</i>

00:01:19.360 --> 00:01:21.360 align:center line:-1
<i>He had pale blue eyes</i>

00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:26.120 align:center line:-2
<i>and I had the impression</i>
<i>he was looking at me with a penetrating gaze</i>

00:01:26.440 --> 00:01:29.920 align:center line:-2
<i>even though he was</i>
<i>almost completely blind.</i>

00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:33.480 align:center line:-2
<i>Otto Weidt sometimes talked</i>
<i>about his background.</i>

00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:35.920 align:center line:-1
<i>His family was very poor</i>

00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:39.440 align:center line:-2
<i>and could not afford</i>
<i>to send him to secondary school.</i>

00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:42.160 align:center line:-1
<i>But he did not accept his lot.</i>

00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:45.560 align:center line:-1
<i>He wanted to make something of himself.</i>

00:01:46.360 --> 00:01:49.040 align:center line:-1
<i>One could hear a certain pride in his voice</i>

00:01:49.360 --> 00:01:52.440 align:center line:-2
<i>when he said</i>
<i>that he was now the proprietor</i>

00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:55.200 align:center line:-1
<i>of his own manufacturing business.</i>

00:01:56.880 --> 00:01:59.880 align:center line:-1
(Clattering of machines)

00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:05.040 align:center line:-1
(Tranquil guitar music)

00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:27.000 align:center line:-2
<i>Occasionally, he fulfilled the orders</i>
<i>he got from the Army.</i>

00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:32.200 align:center line:-2
<i>Sometimes only in part,</i>
<i>and if they insisted.</i>

00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:37.280 align:center line:-2
<i>Brooms and brushes were not so easy</i>
<i>to find in Germany during the war.</i>

00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:41.680 align:center line:-2
<i>Like everything else,</i>
<i>brushes and brooms were scarce commodities.</i>

00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:46.400 align:center line:-2
<i>That is why his workshop</i>
<i>was declared important for the war effort.</i>

00:02:48.160 --> 00:02:51.000 align:center line:-1
<i>That meant it got supplies of raw materials</i>

00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:54.280 align:center line:-1
<i>such as horsehair or fibers.</i>

00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:58.960 align:center line:-2
<i>And Otto Weidt</i>
<i>was permitted to hire workers.</i>

00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:01.760 align:center line:-1
<i>He had a staff of about 30,</i>

00:03:01.920 --> 00:03:05.040 align:center line:-1
<i>and apart from three, they were all Jewish,</i>

00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:07.360 align:center line:-1
<i>and blind or deaf and dumb.</i>

00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.600 align:center line:-2
<i>He could do so</i>
<i>with the permission of the Gestapo,</i>

00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.960 align:center line:-2
<i>which supervised every place of work</i>
<i>where Jews were employed.</i>

00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:20.320 align:center line:-2
<i>Brooms and brushes</i>
<i>were also excellent for bartering with.</i>

00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:26.120 align:center line:-2
<i>His business dealings were often</i>
<i>so confused and complicated</i>

00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:28.920 align:center line:-1
<i>that he could hardly keep track.</i>

00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:32.120 align:center line:-1
<i>He was very imaginative and wily</i>

00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.840 align:center line:-1
<i>and he always enjoyed outsmarting the Nazis.</i>

00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:43.960 align:center line:-2
<i>Somebody who was a great help</i>
<i>to him was Alice Licht.</i>

00:03:44.440 --> 00:03:46.440 align:center line:-1
<i>She became his secretary.</i>

00:03:46.640 --> 00:03:48.640 align:center line:-1
<i>She was one of the three of us</i>

00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:53.280 align:center line:-2
<i>whom the labor exchange assigned to Weidt</i>
<i>as manual laborers,</i>

00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.960 align:center line:-1
<i>but he put us to work in the office.</i>

00:03:57.440 --> 00:04:02.200 align:center line:-2
<i>It did not bother him in the slightest</i>
<i>that that was strictly prohibited.</i>

00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:03.520 align:center line:-1
<i>Werner Basch</i>

00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:05.720 align:center line:-1
<i>became the workshop's book-keeper.</i>

00:04:05.880 --> 00:04:07.680 align:center line:-1
<i>It was his job to try</i>

00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.840 align:center line:-1
<i>and keep all the accounts in order</i>

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.040 align:center line:-1
<i>according to the rules.</i>

00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:15.120 align:center line:-1
<i>Otto Weidt would invite the deputy director</i>

00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.720 align:center line:-2
<i>of the Gestapo's department</i>
<i>of Jewish affairs in Berlin,</i>

00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:22.400 align:center line:-2
<i>Franz Wilhelm Prüfer,</i>
<i>to visit the workshop</i>

00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:26.480 align:center line:-2
<i>so that Weidt could show him</i>
<i>how he had succeeded</i>

00:04:26.640 --> 00:04:30.440 align:center line:-2
<i>in making good workers</i>
<i>out of the "Jewish swine," as he put it.</i>

00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:34.480 align:center line:-2
<i>Our 16-year-old apprentice</i>
<i>used to monitor the entrance</i>

00:04:34.640 --> 00:04:38.720 align:center line:-2
<i>and she would ring a bell to alert us</i>
<i>if any unwelcome visitors came.</i>

00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:43.120 align:center line:-2
<i>We worked in the office at the far end</i>
<i>of the long, narrow premises.</i>

00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:46.240 align:center line:-1
<i>Then Alice, or "Ali," as we called her,</i>

00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:49.920 align:center line:-2
<i>would quickly put on her apron</i>
<i>bearing the yellow star,</i>

00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:53.760 align:center line:-2
<i>and run to join the others in the room</i>
<i>where the materials were prepared.</i>

00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:58.680 align:center line:-2
<i>The accountant Werner Basch and I would also</i>
<i>rush out of the office, run down the stairs</i>

00:04:59.520 --> 00:05:01.520 align:center line:-1
<i>and hide in a cubby hole.</i>

00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:09.280 align:center line:-2
<i>Gustav Kremmert,</i>
<i>who was Weidt's official deputy,</i>

00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:12.200 align:center line:-1
<i>would then sit down at Basch's desk.</i>

00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:15.200 align:center line:-1
<i>That had all been rehearsed many times.</i>

00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:20.440 align:center line:-2
<i>From where we were hiding, we could hear</i>
<i>Weidt showing Prüfer around the workshop.</i>

00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:26.320 align:center line:-1
"You're meant to be making a brush!"

00:05:26.840 --> 00:05:28.840 align:center line:-1
"That is outrageous!"

00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.520 align:center line:-1
Weidt put on quite a show.

00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:34.760 align:center line:-1
The Gestapo official was terribly impressed.

00:05:35.200 --> 00:05:38.040 align:center line:-2
And when he was about to leave
Otto Weidt said,

00:05:38.200 --> 00:05:41.160 align:center line:-2
"A little bottle of something
for your good wife?

00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:43.560 align:center line:-1
Some perfume, perhaps?"

00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:48.080 align:center line:-1
Prüfer said, "No, no. I'm on duty."

00:05:49.080 --> 00:05:51.080 align:center line:-1
But he took it anyway.

00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:54.840 align:center line:-2
Of course we laughed ourselves silly
once he was gone.

00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.000 align:center line:-2
Otto Weidt went straight
to the workshop to apologize

00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:00.160 align:center line:-1
for the way he had behaved.

00:06:00.640 --> 00:06:05.240 align:center line:-2
But the workers said, "Mr. Weidt!
We knew you were only acting.

00:06:05.760 --> 00:06:08.040 align:center line:-1
"And what a great actor you are!"

00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:12.200 align:center line:-2
On such occasions
he would usually give them something.

00:06:12.520 --> 00:06:15.640 align:center line:-1
Tobacco, for example.

00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:18.640 align:center line:-1
That was important for the workers.

00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:22.440 align:center line:-2
And if he had any bread,
he would always share it out among them.

00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.840 align:center line:-2
When you entered the workshop
it was calm and friendly.

00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.360 align:center line:-1
Otto Weidt looked after us.

00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:30.960 align:center line:-1
We would tell him about our problems

00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:33.120 align:center line:-1
and he tried to help us.

00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:35.440 align:center line:-1
It was like an oasis.

00:06:36.280 --> 00:06:40.480 align:center line:-2
He treated us decently, the way
people are meant to treat each other.

00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:43.840 align:center line:-1
<i>And the way he stood by us,</i>

00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.400 align:center line:-2
<i>he gave us back</i>
<i>some slight sense of self-respect.</i>

00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:51.280 align:center line:-2
<i>From the start,</i>
<i>the Nazis had humiliated us</i>

00:06:51.440 --> 00:06:54.280 align:center line:-1
<i>with all their restrictions and rules.</i>

00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:59.880 align:center line:-2
<i>They had declared us sub-humans,</i>
<i>who were to be exterminated like insects.</i>

00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:04.000 align:center line:-1
<i>The Nazis treated the Jews inhumanely.</i>

00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:07.720 align:center line:-2
<i>They were starving them</i>
<i>and forcing them to do hard labor</i>

00:07:07.880 --> 00:07:10.560 align:center line:-1
<i>while under the permanent threat of death.</i>

00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:14.960 align:center line:-2
<i>What Weidt did</i>
<i>was quite incredible for the time.</i>

00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:18.000 align:center line:-1
<i>He treated us like human beings,</i>

00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:19.960 align:center line:-1
<i>showed us respect,</i>

00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:24.320 align:center line:-2
<i>shared our concerns and problems</i>
<i>and helped us find solutions.</i>

00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:27.600 align:center line:-1
<i>He helped us onto our feet.</i>

00:07:28.440 --> 00:07:31.520 align:center line:-1
<i>For us, he became "Papa Weidt".</i>

00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:36.560 align:center line:-2
One day, a removal van
drove into the courtyard of the building.

00:07:37.400 --> 00:07:39.600 align:center line:-1
Two Gestapo men jumped out,

00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:41.920 align:center line:-1
dashed up the stairs to the workshop,

00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:43.800 align:center line:-1
yelled and shouted

00:07:43.960 --> 00:07:46.360 align:center line:-1
and ordered all the blind people to get ready

00:07:46.520 --> 00:07:49.400 align:center line:-2
because they were about to be picked up
and taken away.

00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:52.120 align:center line:-1
<i>At first, the blind seemed paralyzed.</i>

00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:54.680 align:center line:-1
<i>Then, without making a sound,</i>

00:07:54.840 --> 00:07:56.760 align:center line:-1
<i>they stopped working,</i>

00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:59.800 align:center line:-2
<i>picked up their things,</i>
<i>took each other by the hand</i>

00:07:59.960 --> 00:08:02.560 align:center line:-1
<i>and went quietly down the stairs.</i>

00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:09.040 align:center line:-2
<i>Weidt protested,</i>
<i>but the Gestapo men ignored him.</i>

00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:12.160 align:center line:-2
<i>They were surly</i>
<i>and all they said was they had orders</i>

00:08:12.320 --> 00:08:15.440 align:center line:-2
<i>to take the blind workers</i>
<i>to the detention center.</i>

00:08:17.440 --> 00:08:20.040 align:center line:-1
<i>They pushed them along, and into the van.</i>

00:08:20.200 --> 00:08:22.520 align:center line:-1
<i>Then they drove off at high speed.</i>

00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:26.240 align:center line:-1
<i>Weidt remained silent.</i>

00:08:26.400 --> 00:08:28.440 align:center line:-1
<i>He was almost faint with fury.</i>

00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.240 align:center line:-1
<i>Then he stormed out of the office,</i>

00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:35.360 align:center line:-1
<i>wearing his armband for the blind</i>

00:08:35.680 --> 00:08:37.680 align:center line:-1
<i>and carrying his cane.</i>

00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:42.960 align:center line:-1
<i>It was, without a doubt,</i>

00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:46.680 align:center line:-2
<i>only because the Gestapo</i>
<i>were partial to bribes</i>

00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.880 align:center line:-1
<i>that a few hours later Otto Weidt was able</i>

00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:54.280 align:center line:-2
<i>to pick up his blind workers</i>
<i>at the detention center and bring them back.</i>

00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:58.760 align:center line:-2
<i>"How can I be expected</i>
<i>to fulfil my orders for the Army</i>

00:08:58.920 --> 00:09:01.320 align:center line:-1
<i>if they take away my workers?" he said.</i>

00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:04.760 align:center line:-1
But that was the last time Otto Weidt managed

00:09:04.920 --> 00:09:07.640 align:center line:-1
to prevent his workers from being deported.

00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:11.080 align:center line:-1
When he realized that

00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:15.360 align:center line:-2
he turned his attention
to finding places for Jews to hide.

00:09:17.640 --> 00:09:20.920 align:center line:-1
<i>For Ali, to whom he was very close,</i>

00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:24.240 align:center line:-2
<i>and her parents</i>
<i>he rented another storeroom</i>

00:09:24.560 --> 00:09:26.560 align:center line:-1
<i>near the workshop.</i>

00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:30.960 align:center line:-2
<i>The big street sweepers' brooms</i>
<i>piled up behind the window</i>

00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:35.280 align:center line:-2
<i>blocked the view of the interior,</i>
<i>where the three of them were living.</i>

00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:41.040 align:center line:-2
<i>Chaim Horn, who was in charge of preparing</i>
<i>the materials for the brushes and brooms</i>

00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:43.240 align:center line:-1
<i>also appealed to him for help.</i>

00:09:43.400 --> 00:09:45.360 align:center line:-1
<i>"Papa Weidt, hide us!</i>

00:09:45.520 --> 00:09:47.480 align:center line:-1
<i>I don't want to be deported.</i>

00:09:47.640 --> 00:09:51.000 align:center line:-1
<i>I have a family. A son and a daughter."</i>

00:09:51.160 --> 00:09:52.800 align:center line:-1
<i>Weidt eventually agreed</i>

00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:57.040 align:center line:-2
<i>and closed off the last room</i>
<i>of the very long, narrow premises.</i>

00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:00.000 align:center line:-1
<i>He put a big wardrobe in front of the door.</i>

00:10:01.400 --> 00:10:03.920 align:center line:-1
<i>It was full of clothes and coats</i>

00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.560 align:center line:-1
<i>but if you pushed them aside,</i>

00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:09.840 align:center line:-2
<i>you could see</i>
<i>that the wardrobe didn't have a back.</i>

00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:14.240 align:center line:-2
<i>That was the way</i>
<i>into the Horn family's hiding place.</i>

00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:20.480 align:center line:-2
<i>Weidt also supplied</i>
<i>the four of them with food.</i>

00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:25.560 align:center line:-2
<i>I don't know how many people</i>
<i>Weidt helped to hide.</i>

00:10:26.560 --> 00:10:29.720 align:center line:-1
At the end of February 1943,

00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.800 align:center line:-2
my friend Hans,
who worked for the Jewish community,

00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:39.080 align:center line:-2
warned me not to leave the house
or go to the workshop the following day.

00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:41.720 align:center line:-1
He wouldn't tell me why.

00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:48.480 align:center line:-2
<i>The next morning I saw police cars</i>
<i>racing through the streets.</i>

00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:55.160 align:center line:-2
<i>Whenever they stopped in front of a house,</i>
<i>uniformed and plain-clothes policemen</i>

00:10:55.640 --> 00:10:57.600 align:center line:-1
<i>jumped out and ran inside.</i>

00:10:57.760 --> 00:10:59.800 align:center line:-1
<i>Then they brought somebody out,</i>

00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:03.920 align:center line:-2
<i>shoved him into the car,</i>
<i>and sped off to the next house.</i>

00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:07.560 align:center line:-2
<i>They were picking up</i>
<i>the last Jews still in Berlin.</i>

00:11:11.160 --> 00:11:14.080 align:center line:-1
<i>The operation took several days, and then</i>

00:11:14.400 --> 00:11:16.160 align:center line:-1
<i>they were all gone.</i>

00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:19.040 align:center line:-1
<i>We did not hear anybody cry or shout.</i>

00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:21.680 align:center line:-1
<i>There was no resistance.</i>

00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:25.280 align:center line:-1
(Melancholy guitar music)

00:11:44.360 --> 00:11:47.720 align:center line:-2
The Horn family had been in hiding
for eight months

00:11:47.880 --> 00:11:50.440 align:center line:-1
when Chaim Horn met an old friend

00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:53.800 align:center line:-1
and told him that they had gone underground

00:11:54.640 --> 00:11:57.520 align:center line:-2
and about what was going on
at Weidt's workshop.

00:11:57.680 --> 00:12:00.760 align:center line:-1
A few days later, the Gestapo showed up

00:12:00.920 --> 00:12:04.000 align:center line:-1
and, despite Otto Weidt's protests,

00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:08.200 align:center line:-2
entered what appeared to be the last room,
at the back of the workshop,

00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:11.960 align:center line:-2
opened the wardrobe,
pushed aside the clothes

00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:16.640 align:center line:-2
and hauled the entire Horn family
out of their hiding place.

00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.040 align:center line:-1
<i>Another group of officials</i>

00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:26.280 align:center line:-1
<i>took Ali's parents away.</i>

00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:32.040 align:center line:-2
Otto Weidt said
he had never got into trouble.

00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:35.720 align:center line:-2
"Ah, I've been arrested ten times,"
he said dismissively.

00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:39.880 align:center line:-2
"They think they still need me,"
he added, ironically

00:12:40.040 --> 00:12:41.760 align:center line:-1
and with a laugh.

00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:46.040 align:center line:-2
He seems to have had
some kind of hold over the Gestapo

00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.880 align:center line:-1
because they had accepted gifts from him

00:12:49.040 --> 00:12:51.520 align:center line:-1
and he could have compromised them.

00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:55.960 align:center line:-2
Evidence for that is the fact
that he managed to get the Gestapo

00:12:56.560 --> 00:12:58.400 align:center line:-1
to send Ali and her parents

00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:01.840 align:center line:-2
<i>to the so-called "preferential camp"</i>
<i>at Theresienstadt,</i>

00:13:02.520 --> 00:13:05.080 align:center line:-1
<i>which was reserved for "deserving officials"</i>

00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:07.680 align:center line:-1
<i>of the Jewish community, and for the elderly.</i>

00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:10.480 align:center line:-1
<i>Even when they were in Theresienstadt,</i>

00:13:10.640 --> 00:13:14.520 align:center line:-2
<i>Otto Weidt did not leave his friends</i>
<i>and acquaintances in the lurch.</i>

00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:17.520 align:center line:-1
<i>He sent them care packages.</i>

00:13:17.680 --> 00:13:21.760 align:center line:-2
<i>Dried vegetables,</i>
<i>dried potatoes, dry bread.</i>

00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:25.440 align:center line:-2
<i>Whatever he could</i>
<i>get hold of without a ration card.</i>

00:13:29.520 --> 00:13:33.160 align:center line:-2
<i>It is said</i>
<i>he helped 25 people in this way</i>

00:13:33.640 --> 00:13:35.640 align:center line:-1
<i>and kept them alive.</i>

00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:40.000 align:center line:-1
<i>They acknowledged receipt of the packages</i>

00:13:40.160 --> 00:13:42.320 align:center line:-1
<i>on pre-printed postcards.</i>

00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:45.640 align:center line:-1
<i>One hundred and fifty of them still exist.</i>

00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:49.480 align:center line:-2
<i>They were permitted</i>
<i>to write a few lines on the cards.</i>

00:13:49.640 --> 00:13:52.280 align:center line:-1
<i>Some contained cryptic messages</i>

00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:54.960 align:center line:-1
<i>about how urgently they needed help.</i>

00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:58.400 align:center line:-2
<i>For example,</i>
<i>"Greetings to your brother in Essen."</i>

00:13:59.400 --> 00:14:01.080 align:center line:-1
<i>The name of a city,</i>

00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:03.440 align:center line:-1
<i>and the German word for "food."</i>

00:14:04.640 --> 00:14:07.120 align:center line:-1
<i>Weidt did not have a brother in Essen.</i>

00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:10.680 align:center line:-2
<i>Or:</i>
<i>"Greetings to my friends, the Wittlers."</i>

00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.600 align:center line:-2
<i>Wittler was a bakery and the biggest</i>
<i>bread supplier in Berlin during the war.</i>

00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:21.560 align:center line:-2
<i>Or they addressed the cards</i>
<i>to "Otto Weidt, Potato Wholesaler."</i>

00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.560 align:center line:-1
<i>One day, a card arrived from Ali.</i>

00:14:24.760 --> 00:14:28.080 align:center line:-2
<i>She had thrown it out of a train,</i>
<i>bearing no stamp</i>

00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:31.800 align:center line:-2
<i>but the request</i>
<i>that whoever found it would post it for her.</i>

00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:36.600 align:center line:-2
<i>The card actually reached its destination</i>
<i>and was charged the postage due.</i>

00:14:36.760 --> 00:14:39.240 align:center line:-1
<i>Ali wrote that she and her parents</i>

00:14:39.400 --> 00:14:43.120 align:center line:-2
<i>were on a train</i>
<i>from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.</i>

00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:49.240 align:center line:-2
<i>Otto Weidt said, "I'm going to Auschwitz!</i>
<i>I shall do something!</i>

00:14:49.400 --> 00:14:51.640 align:center line:-1
<i>I can't just let her perish there!"</i>

00:14:51.800 --> 00:14:54.080 align:center line:-1
<i>I looked at him in disbelief.</i>

00:14:54.920 --> 00:14:56.920 align:center line:-1
<i>But he did actually go.</i>

00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:06.560 align:center line:-1
I went to Auschwitz, as I said I would.

00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:08.920 align:center line:-1
I rented a room in town.

00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:11.440 align:center line:-1
I stood at the concentration camp gate

00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:16.040 align:center line:-2
and spoke to the local Polish workers
who went in and out of the camp every day.

00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.480 align:center line:-2
After several weeks I found one
who knew Ali from the IG Farben factory.

00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:22.760 align:center line:-1
With his help, I managed to find her

00:15:22.920 --> 00:15:24.920 align:center line:-1
in the mass of Jewish workers.

00:15:25.760 --> 00:15:28.360 align:center line:-2
For a small fee,
he delivered a letter to Ali.

00:15:28.520 --> 00:15:31.320 align:center line:-1
Later medicine, bandages and nourishment.

00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:36.080 align:center line:-2
Then I paid in advance the rent for my room
for a few more months.

00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:38.040 align:center line:-1
Ali knew that.

00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:40.400 align:center line:-1
I had prepared everything.

00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:44.280 align:center line:-2
When the Germans evacuated Auschwitz
as the Russians were approaching

00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:46.360 align:center line:-1
she managed to escape.

00:15:46.520 --> 00:15:50.120 align:center line:-2
In my room there was everything
she needed to help her get by.

00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:53.840 align:center line:-2
Then one day she turned up
at the door here in Berlin!

00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.600 align:center line:-2
The end of the war,
and thus of the Nazi regime,

00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.240 align:center line:-1
delivered from their tormentors Otto Weidt

00:16:17.400 --> 00:16:21.200 align:center line:-2
and all those people
they had made suffer so terribly.

00:16:21.640 --> 00:16:24.640 align:center line:-1
<i>Ali, who had been so close to Otto Weidt,</i>

00:16:24.800 --> 00:16:29.360 align:center line:-2
<i>emigrated to the United States</i>
<i>shortly after the end of the war.</i>

00:16:29.520 --> 00:16:31.800 align:center line:-1
<i>As did many other Jewish survivors</i>

00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:36.080 align:center line:-2
<i>whose experiences</i>
<i>with the majority of Germans and Germany</i>

00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:38.440 align:center line:-1
<i>gave them little reason to stay.</i>

00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:40.760 align:center line:-1
<i>Otto Weidt now helped rebuild</i>

00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:44.960 align:center line:-2
<i>a Jewish orphanage in Berlin</i>
<i>as a home for children</i>

00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:48.520 align:center line:-2
<i>whose parents had been murdered</i>
<i>in the concentration camps</i>

00:16:48.680 --> 00:16:51.240 align:center line:-1
<i>and who had no other living relatives.</i>

00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.880 align:center line:-1
<i>It was also to be a home for old people</i>

00:16:55.040 --> 00:16:58.160 align:center line:-2
<i>who did not have any family</i>
<i>to look after them.</i>

00:17:01.040 --> 00:17:04.200 align:center line:-2
<i>Otto Weidt was soon left alone</i>
<i>with his memories.</i>

00:17:04.360 --> 00:17:07.120 align:center line:-1
<i>What he had gone through, helping us,</i>

00:17:07.280 --> 00:17:10.160 align:center line:-2
<i>had certainly not been good</i>
<i>for his heart condition.</i>

00:17:10.320 --> 00:17:14.000 align:center line:-2
<i>He died of heart failure</i>
<i>on December 22nd,</i>

00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:16.400 align:center line:-1
<i>1947,</i>

00:17:16.560 --> 00:17:18.440 align:center line:-1
<i>at the age of 64.</i>

00:17:18.600 --> 00:17:22.480 align:center line:-2
<i>Otto Weidt was a very special</i>
<i>and very unusual person.</i>

00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:27.560 align:center line:-2
<i>"Dear Otto Weidt,</i>
<i>Thank you for helping the Jews."</i>

00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:31.840 align:center line:-2
<i>That is what one ten-year-old</i>
<i>wrote in the visitors' book</i>

00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.400 align:center line:-1
<i>at the exhibition "Blind Trust,"</i>

00:17:34.560 --> 00:17:38.720 align:center line:-2
<i>which opened in the premises</i>
<i>of the workshop in 1999.</i>

00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:43.080 align:center line:-2
<i>The exhibition tells the story</i>
<i>of Otto Weidt and his workshop</i>

00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:45.720 align:center line:-1
<i>in the very place it had once been.</i>

00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:50.680 align:center line:-2
<i>Children, youngsters,</i>
<i>people of every age and every background</i>

00:17:50.840 --> 00:17:54.200 align:center line:-1
<i>from all over Germany and around the world</i>

00:17:54.360 --> 00:17:57.440 align:center line:-1
<i>come here to learn about Papa Weidt.</i>

00:17:58.760 --> 00:18:01.680 align:center line:-1
<i>Another child wrote in the visitors' book:</i>

00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:03.640 align:center line:-1
<i>"It is a consolation to know</i>

00:18:03.800 --> 00:18:06.000 align:center line:-1
<i>that humanity is still possible,</i>

00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:08.520 align:center line:-1
<i>even in an inhumane world."</i>

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.040 align:center line:-1
<i>An entire school class signed their names</i>

00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:14.920 align:center line:-1
<i>under these words:</i>

00:18:15.080 --> 00:18:19.120 align:center line:-2
<i>"Someone like Otto Weidt</i>
<i>will always remain in our hearts."</i>

00:18:27.520 --> 00:18:31.200 align:center line:-2
Otto Weidt was a hero,
one of the few in Nazi Germany.

00:18:31.360 --> 00:18:34.760 align:center line:-2
He risked his own life
to save the lives of others.

00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:37.760 align:center line:-1
To this day, no German government

00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:41.200 align:center line:-1
has found it necessary to honor this man

00:18:41.760 --> 00:18:46.200 align:center line:-2
or the others who,
in perhaps less spectacular ways,

00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:49.960 align:center line:-1
helped 1,423 Jews

00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.640 align:center line:-1
survive the war hiding in Berlin.

00:18:52.840 --> 00:18:55.760 align:center line:-1
The "Centre for Quiet Heroes" in Berlin,

00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:57.840 align:center line:-1
at Rosenthaler Str. 39,

00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:02.920 align:center line:-2
seeks to record the stories of those
who helped and keep their memory alive.

00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:06.880 align:center line:-2
The story of Otto Weidt
will remain in the center of it.

00:19:07.040 --> 00:19:10.040 align:center line:-2
We want to show the world
that there were people for whom,

00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:12.680 align:center line:-1
even in a time of great inhumanity,

00:19:12.840 --> 00:19:16.040 align:center line:-2
humanity continued
to be their guiding principle.

00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:19.240 align:center line:-1
(Tranquil guitar music)

00:20:27.840 --> 00:20:31.320 align:center line:-1
Subtitles: Heather Kimber