MovieChat Forums > Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) Discussion > the family arrested in the ghetto

the family arrested in the ghetto


I just watched this movie on youtube a couple of days ago. This is the first time I've watched it since I was required to watch it in 6th grade when it first came out. But there was a scene with a Jewish family, a dad, a mom, and a little girl, that were about to be arrested. The Nazis come and knock on their door, and say something in German and the dad responds in German. Does anyone know what they said? Also, you think if the dad would not have said anything and pretended like they weren't home, the Nazis wouldn't have arrested them?

reply

First of all, I want to clarify: I believe you are talking about the scene with the Goslars, the last scene we see them in (outside of the dream Anne has of Hannah). In that case, there was the father, the eldest daughter, Hannah, and the youngest daughter, Gabi. During the course of the movie (and it has been a little since I've actually watched it, so I don't remember if the scene was before or after this scene) you learn that the mother, Mrs. Goslar had passed away during the labor and delivery of her third child. Hannah was the friend of Anne since their kindergarten days when they met in class, and the families, both being German refugees, became close friends.

As for what they said: The solider asked if there were any Jews in the apartment, and Mr. Goslar said that there were.

Had Mr. Goslar not replied, one of two things would have happened. Either the solider would have heard them anyway or not believed the silence, and burst in to confirm the emptiness of the apartment. That would have immediately risked the three being shot for disobedience, or at worst, the revocation of the Palestine papers Mr. Goslar was able to get which had them sent to Bergen Belsen as potential people to be exchanged for captured German soldiers (I do not know if there ever was such an exchange - I do not believe there was, and if there was, the Goslars didn't benefit from it). So, there would be a massive risk to the lives of both his daughters, which I would believe Mr. Goslar wouldn't want, as well to himself.

If Mr. Goslar's gamble THAT night had payed off and they hadn't been taken?

Unfortunately, it'd be a HUGE crapshoot, with little to no payoff.

As Otto points out in the movie, hiding would be extremely difficult. The Goslars would have had to have a location to go to - and quickly (like as soon as the coast was clear that night - or remain quiet and head out the next night), a Christian contact to provide necessities, and a heck of a lot of luck.

With Gabi having been SO small back then, the odds were not great for her ability to remain silent when it was required. And let's pretend things had gone differently for Mrs. Goslar who was very heavily pregnant at the time the roundups began, and (even though there's no indication that they could have known before the delivery) her labor for the third child was apparently very difficult and resulted in the death of mother and child. All it would've taken in hiding is for Gabi to have become fussy at the wrong time, or had the baby lived, the baby to cry at the wrong time, or for someone to hear Mrs. Goslar during labor. Unfortunately, as i understand it, there was a decent amount of betrayal of Jews in hiding.

So unfortunately, even if they had not been arrested that night, it would have been a very risky act, and not one that would have necessarily increased their chances of safety.

I do want to point out that Mrs. Goslar's fate, as sad as it was, may not have been preventable, even in a peace time situation. My understanding is that the labor was extremely difficult, and unfortunately the technology we have today was not available back then. Yes, she was likely extremely limited in her access to proper medical care (I say likely, but it is possible, if rather unlikely, that there was a Jewish doctor with the same, if less, equipment, etc that she could have seen or was seeing - I am not an expert in the doctors back then, but I honestly doubt it), but childbirth was still extremely difficult back then.

Hans Goslar, unknowingly, saved his girls by applying for the Palestine passports. Hannah and Gabi were both under the age of 15, and had they been sent to Auschwitz, they would NOT have survived their first night there. You had to be 15 or older. Having those passports, and applying early, Hans ensured that his family was able to placed in a more privileged situation - relative to others. His girls were still at risk, and were alone at the end of the war, but they survived, unlike Anne and and a third friend, Sanne - who you see briefly with Anne and Hannah at the beginning and then again briefly during the same roundup where Hannah and her father and sister are taken away.


Sorry this got way long winded, but yah.

reply

Nailed it perfectly.

reply