The Jewish Goldschmidt School in Berlin, 1937
A girl writes Hebrew letters on the blackboard, classes work at their desks, and at break hundreds of children fill the lawn before the villa, then run back up the steps.
A girl with bobbed hair and a checked dress writes Hebrew letters on a worn blackboard, a grey-haired teacher guiding her hand. Girls pack their satchels, a mixed class of teenagers bends over exercise books, a teacher watches over a writing lesson. At break hundreds of children fill the lawn before the large villa with its weeping willows: boys chase one another, two girls in coats hug and laugh, and then everyone runs back up the stone steps and through the arched door. In close-up the faces of thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds pass by, and a small boy turns and looks straight into the lens.
Leonore Goldschmidt, dismissed from teaching in 1933 as a Jew, opened the school in Berlin-Grunewald in 1935 for children being pushed out of the state schools. Alongside Hebrew she taught English and prepared pupils for the Cambridge examinations, knowing that their future lay abroad. According to archive records the pupils included Stella Goldschlag, later a Gestapo informer. After the November pogrom of 1938 Leonore Goldschmidt left for England, and in 1939 the school had to close.
Film Break time at the Jewish Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film Faces of pupils at the Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film Hebrew at the blackboard, Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film A girl writes Hebrew letters, Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film Girls in checked dresses at their desks, Berlin 1937
Film Two teenage girls in class, Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film A woman teacher and her writing class, Berlin 1937
Film A mixed class of adolescents at work, Berlin 1937
Film Recess in the schoolyard, Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film A girl goes to the blackboard, Goldschmidt School, Berlin 1937
Film Back to class after recess, Berlin 1937
Film Faces of pupils at the school door, Berlin 1937
Film