The 90th birthday

Object Day Dresden: Hildegard Anita Schmager

“Show us your story!” – Beginning in 2017, the Jewish participants in the Object Days project have answered this invitation by recounting their migration stories.

A woman leans on a cane and holds two photos in her hand. — Hildegard Anita Schmager.
Born in 1926 in Nowawes, now Babelsberg, Potsdam, Germany.
Planned to emigrate, but survived the war in hiding.
Production manager at the DEFA film studios, costume designer.
Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Stephan Pramme

After the Nazis took away our house, we originally wanted to go to Sweden, but we didn’t manage it. So my father bought a boat, which had been the lifeboat of an ocean steamer, and fixed it up with my uncle. And that’s where we lived near Brandenburg. I went to school from the boat, to the Lette School, until it was closed. Later we went into hiding at the house of an uncle in Sorau.

After the war, I came to Dresden as a production manager for a film. I enjoyed it and I moved here. Later my parents came too. My mother celebrated her ninetieth birthday here and the government paid for the party. I’ve brought along a photo of that. She was the oldest Jewish woman in East Germany!

And now I’ve celebrated my ninetieth birthday here too.

Object Days: Dresden (7)

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