Lectures
Veit Harlan
Thursday, March 4, 2010, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
On the occasion of Zeitgeist Films' upcoming release of Harlan - In the Shadow of “Jew Süss”
Jessica E. Jacoby, M.A., daughter of Susanne and Claude Jacoby, granddaughter of Hilde Körber and Veit Harlan, grew up in West-Berlin. She attended the John F. Kennedy School, the first German-American school in town. She received her degree from the Free University Berlin. She has worked as a historian in museums, is a free-lance film reviewer and works on her first feature-length documentary about her father’s Jewish family.
Goethe-Institut New York Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd StreetNew York, NY 10003
212.439.8700
event website
"My maternal grandfather Veit Harlan was one of the most prolific and prominent filmmakers of the Third Reich and
propaganda-minister Goebbels' favorite. Because of his viciously anti-Semitic film Jew Süss, he had to stand trial for crimes against humanity after the war, but was acquitted, like most who served Nazi-Germany with or without conviction. He continued to make films, most of which were quite successful at the box-office. He met stiff opposition from politicians, artists, journalists, and intellectuals left to center, but was loved by German movie-goers, whom he gave the fare they still craved. Yet, this was not enough to satisfy him, so he went into great length to white-wash himself and to get others, especially when Jewish, to help him with that formidable task. Using film-stills as illustration, I will talk about a man turning people, who impacted on his life, into movie characters as a form of personal revenge and revision. While his third wife, the docile Swedish actress Kristina Söderbaum starring in all his films since the mid-thirties, was rewarded with becoming his blonde Alter Ego." – Jessica Jacoby
