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Friday April 5, 2002

Filmmaker discovers grandfather was Nazi

ALEXANDRA J. WALL
Bulletin Staff

But in the course of her research, she made a startling discovery: Her paternal grandfather had been a member of the Nazi party.

"We had no idea," said Emberling. "I was doing research and thought 'I'd better just check.'"

Emberling, a San Mateo-based freelance producer and video editor, will be speaking about the making of "Tangled Roots," the film that led to this discovery, at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club Monday.

To obtain the information about her grandfather, all Emberling had to do was e-mail his name to the National Archives in Washington D.C., which keeps a list of all Nazi Party members on microfilm. "They sent me the actual signed record," she said.

For Emberling, who identifies as a Jew, it was a shock. To the children of Fritz Schmidt -- Emberling's father and his two sisters -- it was even more so.

"That's when the family [in Germany] started to say, 'What kind of film are you making?' They thought it was more of a family history, which it was, but they did not like the direction it was going in."

Emberling, 34, grew up a Reform Jew in Los Angeles. Her father, Wolf Schmidt, came to California in the 1960s, as a journalist covering Hollywood for a German publication. When Janet Meyers brought home her non-Jewish boyfriend, her parents were less than thrilled; that Wolf Schmidt was German made things even worse.

Schmidt and Meyers eloped, and for a time, Meyers' parents considered disowning her. The marriage did not last long; the couple divorced when Emberling was 3.

While her parents remain close friends, Emberling's father remarried a German Lutheran woman, and her mother remarried an American Jewish man.

"They forged this bond, and then retreated to their own cultures," said Emberling, adding that while her German relatives accepted her mother, her father was never welcomed into the Jewish side of the family. "I can't do that, because I'm both," she said.

The idea for the film came about almost 10 years ago, when Emberling was backpacking through Europe.

Although her father had taken her to Germany every few years, Emberling had never visited a concentration camp. When she told her aunt Carola that she intended to go to Dachau, her aunt got extremely defensive.

Basically, said Emberling, "She blew up, suggesting 'What was I saying about her and my family by going there?' It hadn't even occurred to me. I hadn't ever equated my German family with that time period at all."

But this reaction got Emberling thinking. "This is a big issue, and I never really talked to my family about it. That's when I started asking questions."

In "Tangled Roots," Wolf Schmidt discusses the anti-German sentiment he's experienced while living in the United States. Emberling said she never got any of that from her Jewish friends, because most of them just assumed her father was a German Jew.

Talking about the burden of being German has been healing for her father, said Emberling. But her relatives still living in Germany feel differently.

Emberling said she never thought to bring up the topic of their mutual history because "I only saw them every three or four years, and they had to get to know me again."

But they were all cooperative with her in making the video, discussing issues that clearly made them uncomfortable, and their defensiveness becomes very apparent.

In the film, Emberling says that her grandmother, Grace Meyers, had the most impact on her identity as a Jew. Which makes the story all the more compelling, with the revelation about her German grandfather. As a filmmaker, Emberling knew she had to include the piece of information about his Nazi ties, but she also wanted to show a complete portrait of her grandfather.

"He was an artist, piano player and actor, and after he went off to war, he went insane and went into an asylum," she said. Emberling says on camera that she was relieved to learn he wasn't a member of the Gestapo or SS.

Yet, she can sympathize with her German relatives, who only saw him for the loving father he was -- one who suffered a tragic ending.

"Yes, he joined the party and yes, he fought, but he suffered tremendously. He also was a good, loving father. People are not black and white. He was their dad."

Emberling's 66-minute video will be shown mostly for educational purposes, and will be distributed by New Day Films. (Oxygen Media provided half the funds to finish the project.)

Emberling said her own work has tended to focus on issues of tolerance, and that which helps people move beyond stereotypes.

"A lot of Jews think that all Germans are Nazis, but that's not true," said Emberling, who with her husband and 15-month-old son belong to Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame.

Spending five years on the film has brought her closer to both her Jewish and German roots.

Although she chose only to focus on her parents' generation in the film, she said of today's Germany, "It's a new place now, and a new generation. I hope the film can help people become more tolerant."

"Tangled Roots" will screen at 6 p.m. Monday at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market St., S.F. Tickets: $7 members, $10 non-members. (415) 597-6705 or www.commonwealthclub.org Information on film: www.spiritproductions.org

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