How did the disenfranchisement of the Jewish population take place in a normal German town from 1933 on? How did those affected experience the process of exclusion and persecution? And how did non-Jewish neighbors and friends behave? The documentary “Between Hope and Fear” provides exemplary answers to these questions: in three different film elements, it traces the history of the persecution of Jews in Westphalia using the specific example of two Jewish families from Münster.
The focus is on a unique film document. Shot by the Jewish merchant Siegfried Gumprich between 1937 and 1939, the film footage shows seemingly carefree moments of family life: parents and children playing in the garden, taking a Sunday stroll in the old town, playing sports and on vacation. But appearances are deceptive. At the time the photos were taken, the Gumprichs, like the other members of the Jewish community, were already struggling with severe repression and humiliation. Unlike many friends and relatives, however, the family escaped the Holocaust almost at the last minute: three days before the start of the war, they managed to flee to Great Britain. In this way, Siegfried Gumprich's amateur film footage was also saved from destruction. In 2003, filmmaker Markus Schröder turned them into a 20-minute documentary.