In cooperation with the special exhibition “Out of and in focus” at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, the DFF supplements its permanent exhibition on the 2nd floor with a look at some Jewish filmmakers who have shaped German post-war cinema. An additional information track aims to consciously get them as Jewish filmmakers “in focus” and thus raise the question of how film history presents itself from their perspective. In this way, their work is to be made visible and appreciated as part of a German film history.

Many Jewish filmmakers had to emigrate after 1933, mostly to France, Great Britain or the USA. They did not always succeed in continuing their careers there, and those who decided to return to Germany after 1945 had to find their place again in one of the two German states.
In addition to the remigrants, some of whom came in the service of the American military government, survivors of the Shoah also entered the film industry. They confronted themselves and others early on with the memory of the crimes, but also inscribed themselves with their careers in the West German narratives of reconstruction and economic miracle. We present some of these filmmakers in six stations: producers Gyula Trebitsch and Artur Brauner, director Billy Wilder, agent Elli Silman, actors Lilli Palmer and Peter Lorre.