Emigration, N.Y.: The Story of an Expulsion

 ((Documentary -- Austrian -- Color))

By JOE LEYDON

A Prisma Film production. Produced by Heinz Stussak, Michael Seeber. Directed, written by Egon Hunter.
 

History comes to life and touches the heart in "Emigration, N.Y.: The Story of an Expulsion," an extraordinarily affecting three-hour documentary about Austrian emigres who resettled in America to escape the Nazi death machine. Despite pic's length and talking-heads format, the human drama here is compelling enough and the historical perspective engrossing enough to give it a fair shot at a theatrical breakthrough. International fest and TV exposure is virtually guaranteed.

Writer-director Egon Hunter skillfully interweaves statistics and stock footage with interview segments to fashion a compelling, briskly paced narrative. Between March 1938 and November 1941, more than 130,000 Austrians -- most of them Jewish -- fled their homeland. For the 30,000 who journeyed to the U.S., New York was the most popular destination. Hunter interviewed 12 of the emigres in New York, to illustrate objective facts through subjective experiences.

Hunter has divided "Emigration, N.Y." into two segments: "From Europe to America," detailing the hardships and humiliations endured by Jews in Austria before and after the 1938 Anschluss (forced union) with Germany; and "Europe in America," the story of Old World exiles reinventing themselves in the New World as they measure what they gained against what they lost. The first half is by far the more gripping, though second seg is frequently amusing and never less than fascinating.

Throughout the first half, the various interview subjects frequently cover the same ground, each reinforcing what others have said. Rather than seem repetitious, however, the diverse accounts serve as variations on a theme. Hunter intercuts the individual stories to join them in a single purpose, like a conductor leading his orchestra in some sad symphony of terror, loss and exile.

Time and again, the interviewees speak of denial and guilt during the period immediately before and just after the Anschluss. Initially, one Austrian woman says, "You always thought, 'None of this is going to happen to us.' Even when we talked to German emigres, we thought, 'Well, they must have done something.' " When bad things did begin to happen in Austria, Jews were

made to feel that it was somehow their own fault: "You felt ashamed that the other children wanted to spit at you or beat you up."

Another woman recalls that when Hitler rode triumphantly into Austria, she, too, wanted to go outside and cheer. And she couldn't understand why her Jewish parents insisted she stay inside. Indeed, she thought that if she could just meet Hitler, she might be able to charm him: "I thought he might say, 'Well, you're so nice, maybe I'll change my policies.' I was so naive."

Before long, however, even the most optimistic Austrian Jews were scrambling to find safe passage out of the country. Film historian and New York Film Festival co-founder Amos Vogel -- who's credited as providing "research and counseling"-- tells a darkly comical anecdote about sailing from Austria to the U.S. The government insisted that his family purchase first-class tickets for the trip. Once they did, they and all the other Jewish emigres on board were treated to luxurious meals and fawning service by very, very polite Germans.

Trouble is, midway through the trip, Hitler's incendiary "Munich crisis" speech was broadcast live throughout the ship. The more Hitler ranted, Vogel said, "we were absolutely convinced that they were going to throw us overboard."

The second half of "Emigration, N.Y." explores how the emigres settled in to their new home. One interviewee confesses she was dismayed to find tenements as shabby as those she had seen in Charlie Chaplin movies. Another admits that he quickly felt the sting of American-style anti-Semitism. "But the big difference here," he said, "is that if you couldn't get a job with one company -- you started your own company."

"Emigration, N.Y." is a solid and absorbing piece of work. The production values are first-rate, the interview subjects are eloquently vivid, and the pic as a whole is altogether worthy of its subject.

Camera (color), Peter Roehsler; editor, Karina Ressler; sound, Bruno Pisek; music, Shelley Hirsch, Dave Tarras, Lisa Grad. Research and counseling, Amos Vogel. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Forum), Feb. 21, 1996. Running time: 180 min.
 

With: Rosa Ully Axelrod, Ann Branden, Susanne Edelman, Frank Eisinger, Frank P. Grad, Lisa Grad, Eva Kollisch, Gertrud M. Kurth, Karl Neumann, Doris Orgel, Amos Vogel, Henry Wegner.