I was in the mood to see something different, and I decided to watch a
documentary, the Israeli film The Flat. I selected an exceptional film that I would recommend to anyone. I could see why The Flat won a couple of Israeli film awards. What is the topic of this documentary?
Imagine that your grandmother has just died and your family is cleaning out her apartment. Amidst all the stuff your grandmother has collected, you find a tantalizing and shocking newspaper article involving your grandparents that you never heard about before from any other family member including your mother. This is essentially the set-up for The Flat. It was produced by the Israeli filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger.
Goldfinger's grandparents, Gerda and Kurt Tuchler, were German Jews who emigrated to Palestine (now Israel) in 1936 after the Nazis forced them out. The article was from a virulent Nazi newspaper, Der Angriff, from 1934, which chronicles a trip made by a high Nazi official, Leopold von Mildenstein, to Palestine. The article features photos of Mildenstein traveling to Palestine with Goldfinger's grandparents.
The mystery is not only why this SS man would go to Palestine with two Jews but why Goldfinger's grandparents would accompany him. Furthermore, Goldfinger discovers that his grandparents visited Mildenstein in Germany after World War II numerous times and kept up a friendship with him and his wife.