In this video, Gerhart Maass tells the story of his father's arrest during Kristallnacht (“the Night of Broken Glass”) on November 9-10, 1938. Family members wrote to Gerhart while he was in Montreal, assuring him that his father would be released soon. Source: USC Shoah Foundation, 1998
[00:00-00:06]
Video begins with inter-title in white text on black screen while instrumental music plays and fades into the next frame: While in Montreal, Gerhart received news that his father had been arrested on Kristallnacht (“the Night of Broken Glass”) in Hamburg (Germany).
[00:07-00:10]
Cut to Holocaust survivor Gerhart Maass, sitting in front of a wall with three paintings, and looking to the right of the camera. The camera shows his face and shoulders as he speaks during an interview conducted in Montreal in 1998.
>> Gerhart Maass: My pa, my father was arrested.
[00:11-00:21]
The name “Gerhart Maass” and the location of the filmed interview, “Montreal”, appear in white text above Gerhart's right shoulder.
>> It was, the time of the… [Kristallnacht] and my father was put at the time in a concentration camp.
[00:22-00:29]
Cut to black-and-white photograph of the portrait view of an elderly man's face. The camera zooms out to show the man standing in front of a wall of ivy leaves. The photo caption in the top-left corner reads, “Adolf Maass (Gerhart's father), August 1938”.
>> And in that whole time, I would like to mention…
[00:30-00:45]
Cut to another black-and-white photograph of the same elderly man, standing on a balcony covered in ivy, and looking up towards the sky. The photo caption in the top-left corner reads, “Adolf Maass (Gerhart's father), August 1938”. The camera zooms out to show the façade of the house, mostly covered in ivy.
>> I got letters from my brother and cousins and everybody who all knew about it. And my cousin wrote to me, “Don't worry, he will be coming out. Don't worry.”
[00:46-01:14]
Cut to Gerhart Maass in front of the camera.
>> “It is technically impossible that all the Jews in Germany, in Hamburg… all the older people, will all be arrested. They can't feed them all in the camps. And don't worry about it, they will be released very shortly. It's just to scare the people and all this.”
[01:15-01:29]
Cut to black-and-white portrait photograph of a young Gerhart, dressed in a suit, looking at the camera. The photo caption in the top-left corner reads, “Gerhart Maass, 1935”. The camera zooms in on Gerhart's face.
>> And I more or less took that as a consolation. I still did not really believe that such things could be the preparations for worse things to come.
[01:30-01:41]
Cut to Gerhart Maass in front of the camera.
>> And as time progressed, the news became more frightening, and more frightening, from day to day.
[01:42-02:16]
Music plays for the remainder of the video. Three credit pages appear in white text on black screen: Interview conducted by Barry Stahlmann, USC Shoah Foundation, Montreal 1998
Images: Gerhart Maass Family Collection
Directing and Colorization: Helgi Piccinin; Editing: Michaël Gravel, Helgi Piccinin; Audio Mix and Original Music: Pierre-Luc Lecours. [Logo for Chaire de recherche du Canada en patrimoine ethnologique]
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, copyright 2017.
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End of transcript.