Would you hide me?
That’s a hypothetical question that Beth Lane asks several Berlin youths in her directorial debut, “Unbroken.” The answers they give her might surprise some. The documentary chronicles how her mother, five sisters and brother all survived the Holocaust, a near-miraculous feat. They were the largest number of Jewish siblings who survived together unseparated during the course of World War II and made newspaper headlines when they settled in Chicago.
The 2025 film, distributed by Greenwich Entertainment, tells the story of Alfons, Senta, Ruth, Gertrude, Renee and Judith Weber, and Lane’s mother, Bela, who goes by Ginger. Their parents (Lane’s grandparents) would have seemed an unlikely match. Lina was of short stature and from an Orthodox family; her father was a cantor. Alexander Weber was tall and Catholic; he converted and underwent a circumcision so he could marry the Jewish woman he fell in love with in 1926.
In 1933, Weber spent nine months at the Oranienburg concentration camp in Berlin, and Ruth says in the film that he said he was lucky he didn’t go meshuga, “crazy,” like some held in isolation did. He was put to work in the laundry, though still said he came away emotionally broken.
The family was taken to jail, though the children were released after two weeks. A friend of the family, Arthur Schmidt, took them on his truck in the middle of the night from Berlin to his farm in Worin, Germany.
Renee says in the film that she remembered Schmidt’s order: “Don’t raise that tarp” as they hid underneath it for the drive. The children lived in a small laundry room but at times could be outside.
“We were always afraid of strangers, always hungry,” Ginger says in the documentary.
Why did Schmidt and his wife, Paula, risk their lives to save seven Jewish children?
“I have my suspicions, but none of them were verified,” Lane told JNS. “One of his children died, and I’ve wondered if that made him a courageous and benevolent human being.”
The mayor, Rudi Fehrmann knew there were Jewish children being hidden and kept the secret. In the film, Lane visits the farm and is surprised to meet Fehrmann’s grandson.
“I felt like I was touching history, and my mother felt the same way, too,” Lane said. “It was very hard to describe knowing someone whose grandfather had the kindness and courage to do the right thing as a humanitarian.”
Lane’s grandmother, Lina, died in Auschwitz in 1943. Lane says she wishes she could have met the spitfire and chain-smoker who helped Jews in need and had been arrested a few times.
“People ask, ‘Who in history would you most like to meet or have dinner with?” Lane said. “Sometimes, I answer Queen Elizabeth. Most of the time, I answer Lina. I’d like to find out who my grandmother was. She had more chutzpah than one could imagine.”
‘We all get so defeated’
Ruth provides some surprising comic relief early on in the film. But she also talks about a dramatic journey on her bike, evading bombs that were dropping from the sky, as she pedaled to Berlin.
She says her father told her she needed to keep all the siblings together. They were advised to lie and say they had no living parents so that they could immigrate to America. They went to a displaced person’s camp in Munich, then a nunnery, which Lane visits. There, a nun, speaking about how people can be brave, says: “Unless your courage is challenged, you’ll never find out.”
On May 11, 1946, the children boarded the SS Marine Flasher that took them to the United States.
“I remember throwing up a lot,” Ginger says in the film.
They arrived in New York and were sent to Chicago, and were written about in many newspapers. Nevertheless, they were separated and sent to different foster homes.
“It destroyed me,” Ruth says, “because I couldn’t keep my word to my father.”
Bela would be adopted by a family.
Their father had been denied entry into America until he finally came in 1956. He had remarried and had two new children in Germany.
There are a few twists, as well as video footage of a dramatic reunion in 1986 that includes Ginger. The seven Jews who were saved eventually became an extended family of 72.
There is also narration from the diary of Alfons, as well as some from Lane. She said decades ago, she had read her uncle’s 40-page description of what happened to the family, but she again read it meticulously to make the film. She incorporates animation in a few scenes as opposed to re-creations; Lane said she didn’t want to have actors do them since she felt it would feel inauthentic.
She said it is a blessing to be alive as she knows her mother could have easily been caught or not had a place to hide, and she likely would have never been born. Lane, an actress, said that when it was time for her bat mitzvah, her parents asked her if she wanted a party or a trip to Europe. She chose the latter.
“We did and were driving in a mini-bus from France to Dachau, and halfway there, my mother made him turn around,” she recounted.
She said she had no issues going to Germany, however. “I think we have to acknowledge the past and find a way forward,” she said, adding that it was a “mind-blowing research journey.”
Lane said she is happy that the film will be viewed by many people, besides being shown at festivals. It was screened last week at the Paris Theater in Midtown Manhattan and will stream on Netflix beginning on April 23, timed to Yom Hashoah.
“I hope people come away with the notion that one person can make a difference,” Lane said. “We all get so defeated. The world has gotten so huge in terms of population, media and the Internet. We feel like we can’t make a difference.”
Of course, she acknowledged, “not all of us can hide seven children. But we can do something. We have a choice. How can we use our privilege to make the world a better place?”
