Ingelore (2009)

• 89%
• 2009
• Documentary
• Frank Stiefel
• Ingelore Herz Honigstein
• Hanna Schwamborn
• Delaney Miner

Ingelore Herz Honigstein was born in 1924 to Jewish parents in Kuppenheim Germany. She is deaf. As an expression of their embarrassment over their mute child, her parents ignore her and make no attempt at communication. She is sent to a variety of schools and tutors where she learns the most rudimentary forms of language. At the age of six she says her first word. At the age of twelve she finally constructs a complete sentence. She enters the first grade at the age of 13 and for the first time comes into contact with other deaf children. Her short lived education is interrupted by Kristalnact when she is thrown out of school and sent home. Ingelore offers a unique perspective on the Holocaust. Through her eyes we see the shifts in her classmates and neighbors attitudes. She witnesses her father being taken and then released from Dachau She is raped by Nazi cadets on the streets of Berlin, negotiates for her life with an unfeeling official at the US Consulate in Stuttgart and finally escapes Germany for the United States where she learns that she is now pregnant as a result of the rape. Her amazing life shapes her into an extraordinary teacher and we learn the power of light over darkness. 'Ingelore' is more than a biography it is a meditation on freedom both physical and emotional.