Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2012] ALL IN THE FAMILY 823being, Edda is open to any amount of exploration that Goldfinger wants tocarry out. Sadly, as it happens, his explorations lead to Edda unsettlinglyhaving to confront the fact that her father was more deeply involved withthe Nazi Party than he in his lifetime had given her to believe.The core of The Flat, then, is a “third generation” Israeli prodding a“second generation” Israeli—and contemporaneously, a second-generationGerman—into confronting the wrenching realities of their families’ pasts.On the micro and macro levels, it is essential for people like Goldfingerto pursue details of history that, for whatever reasons, have fallenbetween the cracks. Beyond the rich artistic merits of his film, Goldfinger’sdiscoveries suggest that more scholarly work is needed on von Mildenstein.It seems he spent a year during the war in the United States, and that afterthe war, he succeeded in not being tried as a Nazi, with the alibi that he hadbeen a covert CIA agent.I have personal experience of an unwavering determination to dig forfamily truths, leading to discoveries that have meaningful implications forHolocaust scholarship: My parents escaped Hitler’s Germany; I was born inNew York. Only toward the end of my father’s life did I learn that ourfamily had once owned real estate at 16 Wallstrasse in Berlin, which theNazis stole from us in a forced auction. While fighting the German courtsfor restitution, I hired a detective to research the history of our family’sproperty. An heiress of the Nazis was still staking a claim on our place, 16Wallstrasse—where, it turned out, Nazi banners, flags, and uniforms wereproduced before the facilities were turned over to the mass production ofyellow Star of David armbands.Toward the end of The Flat, Goldfinger and his mother are seen in astreaming rain searching through lush overgrowth in a Berlin cemetery forthe gravesite of Suzanna Lehmann’s husband. Whether they actually findhis burial place may matter less than the fact that they are searching forhim. Thanks entirely to Goldfinger’s iron resolve to learn ever more, neitherLehmann nor his wife, the Holocaust victim Suzanne Lehmann, shall beforgotten any time soon.*Joanne Intrator is a New York-based psychiatrist. She thanks writer Scott Rosefor his assistance with this review.