Beth Lane is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Her mother and her six siblings survived together in Nazi Germany and immigrated together to the United States. Considering the times and what they were just trying to survive while in Germany, this is nothing sort of remarkable and kind of a miracle.
The documentary also gives a glimpse into a courageous and beautiful love story of her grandparents. Her mother was Jewish, her father was not as a child in the 60s. I remember those “mixed marriages” were still somewhat frowned upon and as a matter of fact, I distinctly remember people next-door to us in Society Hill. One spouse was Catholic, and one was Jewish and half of their families wouldn’t speak to them. I remember that distinctly as a kid because it struck me as so sad.
There is the sheer wonder of these kids (the Weber 7) surviving together as their own family unit and getting here to the US. A spoiler alert is they weren’t actually separated until they arrived in the US post -World War II, yet they all found their way back to one another, although so many years (decades) later.
The story of how they survived during World War II is something as you watch it. You feel your heart in your throat and even though it’s not your family, there were so many times during this that I could feel tears in my eyes. It was so remarkable that they survived and it was so amazing what people did to help them stay alive.
As I said to the filmmaker, Beth Lane, as we were corresponding, as a nation of immigrants, I think her documentary is also very timely for that reason alone.
This beautiful body of work reminds us of what it took for people to come here and how we have to show more grace for immigrants for lack of a better description (and I don’t necessarily like the over use of the word grace but it somehow seems applicable here.)
After all, would you or I be here if there wasn’t someone in our family tree who came here from someplace else?
These Weber children survived their mother being taken to Auschwitz where she was killed. Even before the mother was taken, the father had been taken to a camp and then released after a few months. and these kids survived through the kindness of strangers living in a hut in Port on a farm in Germany can you imagine doing that? Can you imagine being able to survive like that? I can’t, and they did.
I’m going to share Beth Lane’s Director’s statement from her website:
On September 11, 2001, I stood next to the Empire State Building, watching smoke billow above the skyscrapers moments before the Twin Towers fell. Shock and fear gripped everyone around me as I moved swiftly to get as far away from 34th Street and 5th Avenue as possible. Bridges, tunnels, and trains on and off the island of Manhattan were closed indefinitely. I made a call to a friend back in my suburban neighborhood, asking her to retrieve my three children from elementary school. I gave her my sister’s phone number in Chicago, “just in case” — a call I will never forget.
As a child, I had been assured the Holocaust could never happen again. Yet, in that moment, it felt like history’s darkest echoes had returned — racism, hatred, and violence erupting in New York City.
My mother, Ginger, lived a life that mirrored Job’s trials. Born into poverty in Berlin, she watched the Gestapo shove her mother into a black car, never to return. She became one of the “Weber Siblings,” seven hidden children of the Holocaust who survived against all odds. After the war, they immigrated to America through the Jewish Children’s Bureau, only to be separated and placed in different foster homes. My mother was adopted, and social workers advised her new parents to sever ties with her biological family to help her “acclimate.”
She always told my siblings and me that we would never meet her biological brothers and sisters. But in 1986, 40 years after her emigration, that changed. Mom reunited with Alfons, Senta, Ruth, Gertrude, Renee, and Judith — siblings who had stayed connected and quietly tracked her whereabouts. I learned of the reunion after the fact, living in another state, and always wondered what that moment must have felt like.
Ten years later, the Weber siblings gathered again to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their emigration. They stood on my mother’s front lawn in front of a giant poster of the Statue of Liberty, posing for a photo as if they had never been apart.
At that 1996 reunion, our cousin Lynn compiled a massive scrapbook chronicling the family’s history, filled with photos and documents. Uncle Alfons wrote a 40-page account of his memories, helping us piece together their story. He even traveled back to Worin, Germany, where the siblings had been hidden for two years. He, Aunt Gertrude, and my mother worked tirelessly to gather the documents needed to honor Arthur and Paula Schmidt — the quiet heroes who risked their lives to hide the Weber children. They submitted an application to Yad Vashem to have the Schmidts named “Righteous Among the Nations.” Though Alfons was alive when the designation was approved, he passed away in 2016, just six months before the official ceremony in Jerusalem.
In 2017, after 72 years of refusing to return to Berlin, my mom decided to pick up Alfons’ mantle and travel back to Worin. My sister, father, and I accompanied her. That day changed my life, and I committed to making a major motion picture to ensure that the Schmidts — and all the silent heroes who chose courage over complicity — would never be forgotten.
UnBroken became my siren call to honor these incredible upstanders. I chose to focus on the goodness in people, to highlight bold acts of generosity, bravery, and kindness.
Over my seven-year journey to make this film, it became my response to the events shaping our world today. Hope will always triumph over evil — yesterday, today, and forevermore.
And in many ways, UnBroken was the gift I gave myself for missing that 1986 reunion — a way to finally step into the story and carry it forward.
Only three siblings survive according to Beth’s website. That would be her mother Ginger (or Bela), Judith, and Gertrude.
This is on Netflix and it is so worth watching. Seriously, it’s beautiful and it’s such a tribute to a family that survived literally the impossible during a time that was so ugly and we need that reminder today we need to be reminded that things like this happen if we aren’t good stewards of our world.
Through the website you can also arrange for a screening: https://bethlane.com/
Enjoy this beautiful spring day.
