Show a Key Stage 3 history class rare footage of the life of a Jewish family in Germany between 1937 and 1939. This lesson-starting resource can be used to stimulate classroom discussion.
These home movies were shot by Siegfried Gumprich, a grain merchant and first world war veteran living in Munster, and they feature his wife Louise and children Brigitte and Walter.
Secondary pupils can see an apparently contented family going about their everyday business. But appearances are deceptive - the Gumprichs were trying to preserve a sense of normality under increasingly restrictive conditions.
By 1939, when the films were being shot, the family were trying to emigrate, applying to the relevant authorities, who didn't grant them permission. On 28 August 1939 the family was taken to the Dutch border by a Catholic priest and they were able to escape to England.
