Smithsonian Channel Documentaries
The Teacher Who Defied Hitler
2013 • E12 Nov 16, 2013 60m
1934. Berlin. The Nazi party is on the rise, and so are violent acts against Jews. Anti-Semitism has become a state doctrine and racism has replaced education, profoundly affecting the most vulnerable members of the Jewish community: the children. But one woman dared to stand up to hatred and to Adolf Hitler's totalitarian regime. Witness the story of Leonore Goldschmidt, a fired teacher who found a loophole in Nazi law and opened the Goldschmidt School, a sanctuary for hundreds of Jewish youths, an oasis in the heart of hell.