Year: 2024

Runtime: 90′

Festivals/Awards

Official selection:

• 2025 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
• 2025 Phoenix Music & Film Festival
• 2025 San Diego International Jewish Film Festival

The incredible story of the rescued treasure of Jewish musical life in National Socialist Berlin. This documentary resurrects music that was considered lost for over seventy years and brings it back to life.

Between 1933 and 1938, the two Jewish-run record companies, Semer and Lukraphon, were still able to produce music by and with Jewish artists as part of the Jewish Cultural Association. This music was completely destroyed in a single night, along with the original matrices, lyrics, and sheet music. It was the night of November 9, 1938, when violent Nazi mobs viciously attacked Jews and Jewish communities. Since then, the music was considered lost forever. The fact that this musical treasure was found again over 70 years later is nothing short of a miracle.

The shellac records of the two labels are a special kind of treasure trove, as they reveal the contradictory sides of Jewish identity in the politically explosive Berlin of the 1930s. After the ban on Jewish artists in 1933, the records became a refuge for musicians and cabaret artists who were no longer allowed to perform in Germany.

With shellacs painstakingly reassembled from the remotest corners of the world and the newly arranged music of a top-class international music ensemble, the documentary music film explores the almost unbelievable story of the two Berlin record companies, the tragic fate of their Jewish performers, and the resurrection of music that has lost none of its relevance and power. The film takes a closer look at the tragic fate of the Jewish artists who left behind a legacy with this music, which remains as powerful and relevant today as it was then.