SEEING THE OTHER SIDE
A major television film based on Weissmark's book JUSTICE MATTERS: LEGACIES OF THE HOLOCAUST AND WORLD WAR II (Oxford University Press, 2004) aired nationwide on WDR German television (1.channel in Germany) in 2006.
The 15-minute documentary film is titled Seeing the Other Side - 60 years after Buchenwald.
It was produced by Johanna Holzhauer of WDR German Television and written by Johanna Holzhauer and Miriam Leuzel.
The Westdeutscher Rundfunk TV funded the film.
Now, the English translation of the film is available for educational showings.
Following is a brief description of the film.
Seeing the Other Side -- 60 years after Buchenwald, WDR German Television, 2006
Can the past be transformed for the sake of the future?
Seeing the Other Side -- 60 years after Buchenwald, a documentary film by German Television WDR is exploring this question.
A daughter of Holocaust concentration camp survivors, Weissmark grew up with a deep sense of injustice and hatred of the Germans. She became a leader in bringing together members of groups locked in age-old conflicts. But that didn't make it any easier for her to reach out to the family that saved her father's life in the Holocaust.
Now 60 years later, she has finally been able "to see the other side" and say thank you to the Seebasses, the family that rescued her father and welcomed him into their home at great risk. That act of kindness saved her father's life, but also her faith in humankind.
"Seeing the Other Side" chronicles the very first meeting between Weissmark and the Seebass family. The film shows that the terrible legacy of the Holocaust with all its hurt, losses and destruction - this incurable wound - can be transformed. When both parties are willing to put aside the notion that they are the most aggrieved and are prepared to see the other side, then the cycle of hatred and resentment can be stopped.