At the beginning of 1939, Rudi Pincus, a 21-year-old optician’s assistant, flees Nazi persecution to Chile. His parents do not receive visas and have to remain in Berlin. From then on, the family is connected only by letters. When his parents are deported to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in October 1941, their correspondence ceases.
Decades later, their grandchildren in Chile come across the letters from that time. They begin to reconstruct the origins and fate of their murdered grandparents. The correspondence illustrates the challenges and hopes, the resilience and despair of the family in the face of a growing threat.
The event is part of the Embassies of Exile series, in which the Exilmuseum collaborates with embassy representatives and cultural institutions around the world. The Chilean Ambassador Jorge Eduardo Sandrock Carrasco will also be present on this occasion.
Stefanie Oswalt: “The ground is burning beneath our feet…” A Jewish family between Berlin, Santiago de Chile and the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, published in 2026 by Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, editor: Claudio Pincus