The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, epitomized by the fall of the Berlin Wall, gave rise to eruptions of anti-Semitism and other forms of violence in the former Soviet Union, triggering the first massive exodus of Jews since survivors of World War II and the Holocaust fled Europe almost 56 years ago to help build Israel. Today, in bittersweet irony, tens of thousands of Eastern European Jews are escaping persecution by fleeing to Germany! Many of them have found sanctuary in Berlin, building thriving Jewish communities in the same city from which Hitler and his deputies created the secret plan for what they called the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. The execution of that plan resulted in the mass murder of six million Jews, including two million children.

In Berlin right now, thousands of Jewish children--and their parents--whose futures were in serious question because of prejudice and discrimination in the East, are cautiously becoming members of the larger community of Berlin, a growing city of 5 million rich in art and music and which for the most part is welcoming the new exodus.

A young medical doctor and her two children are part of the exodus. They live in a stylish three bedroom apartment in one of the most fashionable neighborhoods of Berlin and spend several evenings each week attending theatre, poetry readings, live music and in the case of her son, the hottest disco in town. They don't feel quite like Germans, but they are quite comfortable in Berlin. Another family presented in EXODUS TO BERLIN fled the uncontrolled street crime that makes some Russians wish they lived elsewhere. As Jews, Grigory, Anna and their daughter were given special welcome by the government of Germany including support for housing, education and other services to help them integrate with German society. Grigory works as a news and documentary cameraman and Anna, a published author, edits a new Jewish community publication. Integration is no small challenge for them despite their high level of education. They are buffeted by conflicts within the Jewish community as well as with the larger German society which is still trying to define itself as a nation. Exodus to Berlin tells the story of these new Berliners, those who help them and those who hate them. It is a story filled with drama that is both historic in its sweep and very immediate.

This past November 9, on the 62nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, (the Nazi-orchestrated attack on Jewish institutions that presaged the Holocaust), some 200 thousand Germans--most of them Christians, marched in support of the new arrivals and against right wing, anti-immigrant, neo-Nazi violence. Marching that night were Germans--including Chancellor Schroeder--who want the immigrants to know they are welcome and will be protected by the vast majority of the nation--including its police, who routinely guard Jewish community sites with uniformed officers carrying machine guns.

In January, 2001, our camera was inside a march of neo-Nazi skinheads who were supporting the political party the Government is trying to ban, the NPD. We were also with thousands of school children in Potsdam who were marching against right wing extremism and in support of the local Jewish community whose cemetery had just been firebombed by a neo-Nazi group that had claimed responsibility. In many ways, these three marches provide a leit motif for EXODUS TO BERLIN. Two of the marches are in harmony with the times in which we live, with the values the world has come to share, and with the positive future that is likely for Germany’s vigorous democracy. The other march is in defiance of our times, our values and of democracy, itself. Taken together, these three marches remind the world that we must always guard against those who suffer from fear of "foreigners" and make their point through the practice of hate and violence.

Today, repeated racist violence intimidation and discrimination continue to drive Jews out of the former Soviet bloc and into the arms of Germany, which despite its own historic antipathy towards immigration, has become the single biggest receiving nation for all people seeking sanctuary in Europe. And there is every reason to expect the EXODUS TO BERLIN will continue.

Eleven days after that mass demonstration in Germany's capital, the Associated Press reported from Moscow on the latest episode of anti-Semitism which continues to push Jews into the stream of immigrants. The former vice governor of a province whose new governor has been criticized for making disparaging remarks about Jews said that he was beaten up in a government building by assailants shouting anti-Semitic slurs.

``To say they were beating me is an understatement -- they were killing me,'' Sergei Maksachev said on Russian television channels from a hospital bed in Kursk, 300 miles southwest of Moscow.

EXODUS TO BERLIN is not only a powerful story of hope and struggle for people fleeing persecution today, it is also a tale of transformation of the soul of a city whose very name is synonymous with mass murder and guilt, but is now being born again in the light of public and private compassion. Just as Berlin has re-emerged as the capital of reunited Germany, the city--in the hands of a new generation of Germans schooled about the horror perpetrated by their ancestors--is also rising to this great humanitarian challenge. But not all Germans are joining in the noble enterprise.

In the first week of October 2000, two Jewish temples were attacked by Arab and suspected neo-Nazi assailants, whose violence shattered synagogue windows and the newly arriving Jews' sense of security. In partial response to the two very recent attacks on synagogues in Berlin, several prominent figures, including Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, attended worship service at the temples. But, in January, another synagogue was desecreated.

During the Holocaust, police in Berlin rounded up Jews for deportation to the death camps. Today, Germany's police protect and defend Jews and hunt down those who would harm them. Germany's Interior Minister, Otto Schily, says that neo-Nazi activity in Germany is on the rise with more hate crimes including murder, beatings, vandalism and the displaying of banned Nazi symbols. That's up from about 10 thousand incidents for all of 1999 versus the same number for just the first nine months of 2000. These acts were carried out against a wide range of those perceived as foreigners in general and not only Jews. Still, Jews in Germany get the message that they have real enemies in their place of sanctuary despite strong support from the Government.

"It is especially discouraging for me that there has been such a rise in the number of politically motivated crimes," Interior Minister Schily said at a meeting with other top police officials. "But I am certain German society will not accept racism and violence directed at minority groups."

EXODUS TO BERLIN--researched, reported, produced, directed and photographed by two award winning American broadcasters and authors--is an uncompromising investigative documentary examination of the people involved in Berlin's new role as provider of sanctuary to the Jewish people. This film deals directly with issues of culture, faith, and politics.

Before the Nazis came to power, one-third of all Germany's Jews--160 thousand of almost a half million nationwide--lived and flourished in Berlin, and played a powerful role in making this city the center of art, commerce and education, during the period of intellectual enlightenment that came before the great darkness of Hitler's National Socialism descended on Europe and engulfed its Jews. By the time the Allies crushed the last remnants of the armed forces of the Third Reich and rumbled into Berlin, the only Jews left in the shattered city were surfacing from places where courageous German Christians had hidden them at great risk to themselves.

Today, as the anti-Semitism unleashed by the fall of Soviet communism intensifies and sometimes terrorizes the Jews of the former Soviet bloc, Germany--especially Berlin--has thrown open its arms and said, "Come! Here you will be safe and have a new life!"

That new life is vigorously underway: Old synagogues are being resurrected and the new immigrants--many of whom had little or no knowledge of Judaism--are learning. Jewish rites of passage including weddings, baby namings, bar and bat mitzvahs abound and are testaments to the rapidly rising Jewish population--hundreds of new arrivals every week. Many of them speak no German, no English, no Yiddish and no Hebrew--the common languages of Berlin's older resident Jews. The newcomers require a wide range of help as they struggle to adapt, but there is no question that Jewish life in Berlin is sprouting anew with the vigor of spring flowers poking through the cold, hard ground of the winter of 2000-2001.

EXODUS TO BERLIN recalls the past to provide context but the film's main focus is on the children, women and men of this new exodus and the determined people of Third Millennium Berlin who are working hard to make the name of Germany's capital synonymous with compassion and rebirth for the cousins of those who were slaughtered under orders that came from this very same city.

The Story

A brilliant winter sun warmed the bleak Polish-German border on January 16 of this year as a family of Jews from the former Soviet Union--Vladimir, Irina, and Alexander Rosenblatt, gratefully accepted immigrant status, including up to 3 years of comprehensive benefits, at the immigration center in the town of Peitz. "We do this to make a better life for our son and for our selves," said Vladimir, a scientist. His son, Alexander, 17, was relieved and excited as he declared, "I will be a German and a Jew!"

In Berlin, hospital physician Alexandra Bermant--a Jew from Russia who has lived in Germany for 8 years now--is grateful to Germany for the opportunities which she has turned into a happy life for herself and her two children. She adores the cultural richness of the German capital; she and her teenagers---Vladimir and Olga-- dine on its art , literature and music. But she is haunted by fear of the small minority who hate the Exodus to Berlin and all foreigners. Alexandra worries that some neo-Nazi skinheads may one day overhear Olga speaking Russian to a friend on the street or on a subway and attack her. "I hope that the Government and the majority of Germans will take steps so people like me will not feel one day that we must flee from this country because of the hate of a small minority."

The haters are mostly in the former East Germany and are relatively small in number but some are capable of murder. In the city of Greifswald where police believe right wingers killed a homeless man last year, a few hundred right wing extremists from around the region, marched in January behind the banners of the NPD, the political party the Government is working to ban because the NPD allegedly foments and inspires neo-Nazi skinhead violence. For a while, until march organizers figured out that we were not part of their group, our camera was inside the skinhead formation as it strutted up the street. As they marched, thousands of local residents were blocks away, rallying against hate and in support of immigration to Germany.

Along the line of the NPD march, this elderly woman repeatedly screamed at the skinheads, "You pigs! Nazis out!"

This psychologist lives in the town where the neo-Nazis marched. He tolds us, "It's very important not to back down in the face of this hatred. We must engage in acts of civil courage." The term "Civil Courage," is the Government's call to all decent Germans to immediately and publicly denounce acts of racism and other unacceptable behavior to make sure the offenders realize that they are unrepresentative of the great majority of the German people.

Earlier, Udo Voight, the chairman of the NPD, told Peter Laufer during an interview that the Government should pay to send all foreign residents of Germany back where they came from.

Frank Jansen, widely regarded as one of Germany's leading authorities on neo-Nazi skinheads, in his office at the Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin where he told us to expect an escalation of violence by right wing extremists against foreigners including Jews from the former Soviet Union.

Last November 9th, our camera was in the heart of a huge demonstration of some 200 thousand Germans in favor of tolerance and opposed to hatred. Jewish and non-Jewish community and political leaders across the country agree that today, despite a 30 per cent rise in neo-Nazi incidents during 2000, the massive majority of German citizens are on the side of the immigrants and opposed to the NPD and their "street soldier" skinhead supporters. Each of these marchers was a statement in support of the continuing Exodus to Berlin from the former Soviet Union.

In mid January, suspected neo-Nazis firebombed the 300 year old Jewish cemetery in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam. Within 72 hours, thousands of local school children were organized by city officials into a march of support. As they passed by the cemetery, the rabbi declared, "This march gives me hope, for these children are the future of Germany!"

Heiner Wegesin, interviewed here by Peter Laufer, is the top police intelligence official of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany. He is personally outraged by the existence and actions of the neo-Nazis and their NPD friends and he is eager to use every aspect of the law's power to, "Crack down!" on those who would use intimidation and violence to reverse the Exodus to Berlin. But, "the long term victory must be over ignorance and hatred and that will take education and years."

In Berlin, young Jewish men from the former USSR at morning prayers at a synagogue school supported by the Ronald Lauder foundation which has helped spark a Jewish community revival in much of Eastern Europe.

Driven from Russia not so much by anti-semitism but by uncontrolled street crime and his fear for his daughter and his camera equipment, this Jewish filmmaker and artist says, "The Exodus to Berlin will continue despite the ugly frightening images of neo-Nazis on the march that are seen on Russian TV. Because they are not the only images of Germany. Most --the overwhelming majority of German images--are warm and welcoming."

On Camera

  The following are some of the stars performing their autobiographical roles in Exodus to Berlin:

• President of Germany
• Paul Spiegel, elected head of the nationwide German Jewish community
• Andreas Nachama, elected head of Jewsish community of Berlin
• Rabbi Walter Rothschild of Britain who was assaulted on the Berlin subway while engaging in an act of the kind of "civil courage" public officials say is necessary to eliminating hate crimes and other acts disruptive to a respectful, democratic society
• Heiner Wegesin, Chief police intelligence officer of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the unit of the government charged with defending German democracy from political extremism and terrorism
• Rabbi Nachum Presman, whose cemetery was desecrated in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam
• Thousands of Potsdam school children march in support of the Jewish community following the desecration of the Jewish cemetery by neo-Nazis who claimed responsibility. "This gives me hope to see these children marching for they are the future," of Germany Rabbi Presman tells us
• Mayor of Potsdam. In an interview, he addresses the challenge of educating kids away from hate as he exits firebombed cemetery building
• Michael Gellenbeck. in an interview outside the desecrated cemetery building in Potsdam, the police chief for the state of Brandenburg vows to "get" the perpetrators of the cemetery desecration and insists Jews in Brandenberg are largely safe.
• Cabdriver in Potsdam. in an interview he tells how neo-Nazi teens often flag him down and as part of their regular way of doing business, they say farewell by snapping him a crisp, "Heil Hitler," which is illegal.
• Vladimir, Irina, and Alexander Rosenblatt, Ukrainian Jewish family, accepted for immigrant status including 3 years of comprehensive benefits as they change citizenship to German at the immigration center in Peitz on the Polish-German border January 16, 2001. "We do this to make a better life for our son and for our selves," Vladimir, a scientist, told us, while his son, Alexander proudly declared, "I will be a German and a Jew!" And his father said, "As for skinheads, we are not afraid; we had them in Ukraine, too."
• Nov. 9th mass demonstration. Hundreds of thousands march in Berlin against sharply increasing neo-Nazi violence and intimidation, against the extreme right wing New Democratic Part (NPD) and in support of new arrivals to Germany including Jews from former USSR who make up the Exodus to Berlin.
• Hundreds of neo-Nazi skinheads marching under the banner of the New Democratic Party (NPD) in the German town of Greifswald, (mid-January 2001) chanting their demand that foreigners get out of Germany.
• Residents of Greifswald reacting angrily and thoughtfully to the neo-Nazi march in their town's streets; thousands of locals joined in an anti-Nazi rally while the march of hundreds of neo-Nazi skinheads made its way through their city.
• Udo Voight, head of the NPD right-wing political party which is the target of an effort by the Government to ban it because it foments skinhead violence. "The Government should pay to send all the foreigners back where they came from."
• Dr. Alexandra Bermant, 41-year old Russian Jewish physician and emigree to Berlin who along with her two teenaged children, has come to love Berlin over the 8 years since they emigrated but fears skinheads might attack her daughter if they hear her speaking Russian to a friend on the subway or on the street
• Bermant's son Vladimir, 17 and daughter Olga, 15
• Klezmer band at Jewish Culture Day event
• Boris Rosenthal, klezmer musican
• Igor Ginsburg, klezmer musician
• Rosenthal's son, Ivan
• Grigori Manuov, Russian Jewish cameraman and emigree to Berlin
• Anna Sokhrina, Russian Jewish emigree writer on immigrant affairs
• Hermann Simon, director of the New Synagogue Foundation Berlin
• Christian Dirks, curator and historian at the New Synagogue Foundation
• Horst Gessner, 73-year-old Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who lived through the War in Berlin
• Hellmut Stern, Jewish Berliner who fled in '39 and returned to the city the day before the Wall was erected and became First Violinist with the Philharmonic
• Burkhardt Seidemann, director Hackescher Theater on Germany's culture of acceptance
• Mark Aizakowitch, lead actor in a Yiddish-language play at the theater on being a stranger
• Frank Jansen, journalist at Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin, and widely respected expert on neo-Nazi movements
• Joel Levy, head of Ronald Lauder Foundation's Berlin operation which teaches orthodox Judaism to Russian emigrees and otherwise helps restore Jewish community life
• American instructors in Jewish religion and culture at the Lauder Foundation school in Berlin
• Barbara John, top Berlin government welfare official in charge of assisting new arrivals including Jews from former USSR reports Jewish arrivals thriving
• Markus Foederl, editor-in-chief of the news channel NTV (CNN partner) on confronting xenophobia in Germany's culture and what his TV channel is actually doing about it
• Law students and high school kids who joined in the November 9th mass demonstration

The Filmmakers

The filmmakers have a long history as journalists in all media.

Peter Laufer, is an award-winning journalist with deep experience covering Germany and Germans dating back to the early 1980s when he was fortunate to be the recipient of a John J. McCloy Fellowship and spent a month touring the country and beginning a long relationship with members of the post-War generation of Germany. Laufer returned on several news-gathering trips during the years he worked as roving international Correspondent for NBC News, finally moving to Berlin in 1988 when he was awarded a Robert Bosch Foundation fellowship. Laufer learned the language that year and made several journalistic trips into the former East Germany. Just after the fellowship year ended, the Wall fell. Laufer covered those events for CBS News and published a book about his experiences, Iron Curtain Rising (San Francisco, Mercury House, 1991). "I could actually feel, see, hear, and, yes, smell the revolution as I read Iron Curtain Rising," wrote Jim Farley of ABC News about the book.

The San Francisco Examiner's David Armstrong called it, "A beautifully crafted fusion of political reportage, personal memoir, and travel writing that bristles with insight." Laufer returned to Germany in the mid-1990s to serve as founding Program Director of the Berlin radio station, NewsTalk, the first of its kind in Germany. During this period he was also Germany Bureau Chief for the U.S. public radio program Marketplace.

Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist Jeff Kamen covered the fall of the Berlin Wall for WPIX television in New York City (and some 100 independent TV stations from coast to coast in America who were subscribers to the Chicago Tribune-owned Independent Network News).

Kamen was no stranger to Germany then; he had covered stories in Bavaria and researched his book on terrorism, Final Warning (New York, Doubleday, 1989), in part, along the German-German border during the Cold War. He and Laufer worked together on several projects, including a radio special report in 1997 for Marketplace. Kamen's assignment was to create an audio "sculpture" as a signature to set off the five days of special reports from Berlin marking the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.

Financial Support

The filmmakers have received a major grant from the RIAS Berlin Commission, and they continue to raise additional funds required for the completion of EXODUS TO BERLIN and for its classroom study guide. The film is expected to be ready for broadcast in March of this year.

Audiences

American, European, and worldwide theatrical, broadcast, cable and satellite will be the first audiences; the filmmakers already have letters of intent from theatrical and broadcast distributors.

This documentary will have a long life in secondary schools throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan, where the subject matter has high interest. A printed Discussion Guide for Teachers -- initially in English and German -- will facilitate classroom use of EXODUS TO BERLIN. A videotaped copy of the film will be delivered to the head of the department of education in each of the 50 U.S. States so that they may consider integrating this film into their social studies, ethics, and world history curricula. EXODUS TO BERLIN will be placed in documentary film festivals around the world and will be available for theatrical presentation in motion picture theaters.