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FILM ONLINE Tvins

Affecting story of twin-brother Jewish refugees who escaped Nazi Germany and settled in Bradford

DIRECTED by Danny Hardaker, this well-made 10-minute documentary is very much a taster for what could be a much longer film.

Tvins tells the story of the two German-Jewish brothers who arrived in Bradford in 1938 as Fritz and Hans, returned from Canada as Fred and John and then settled into Bradford life, married and raised children.

At the time of their flight to safety, Europe was in chaos and in Germany the Nazis were in power. The brothers, from a privileged background, were sent by their father to Bradford to escape the fascist threat in their home country and their story is told through the eyes of their two children, Nick and Paula, and family photo albums.

In 1940, along with thousands of other German refugees as well as Nazi sympathisers — at that time, the British authorities made no distinction between opponents of Nazism and fascists — the brothers were interned and then shipped to Canada.

The Toczek twins survived the freezing Canadian winters and privations of internment and were able to return to Bradford before the war was over.

While this short film is a valuable addition to the many little-known family stories connected with the second world war and about those who successfully fled the Nazis, it lacks both exceptionality and a wider political context.

We are not told whether these two boys achieved anything out of the ordinary or if they made a special contribution to the fight against German fascism. Nor do we learn of their involvement, if any, with their fellow refugees.

There are so many other stories of German-Jewish refuges who fled to Britain whose lives certainly deserve telling. Perhaps this one could be the trigger for telling others, such as the story of Lou Baruch, who also settled in Bradford, and was one of the few rescued when the ship taking him to Canadian internment was torpedoed by a German U-boat shortly after leaving Liverpool.

The artists Rene Graetz and Theo Balden and the atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs were also interned in Canada and may even have met the Toczek brothers.

But they were all communists and actively involved in the anti-fascist struggle which gave their lives a richer context. I doubt very much, though, that their stories will be told in a similar way.

This is not to belittle this commendable attempt to look at the history of one family, just one of the many German Jewish refugee families who settled in Bradford and other British cities.

Available for download from live.themill.tv/selectTickets.php?id=TVINS

 

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