For Annie Day, who turned 100 in 2012, memories of taking in two German prisoners of war for Christmas holiday at the height of the Second World War remain crystalline, even after seventy years. After learning from her young son that she could entertain nearby POWs for Christmas dinner, she opened her home and shared her wartime rations. Following a surprise visit from one of the prisoners many years later, the two forged a bond that lasted for decades. A moving story of humanity and kindness transcending bellicose times, The German Who Came to Tea is also a meditation on what memories stay with us, and why.
An English centenarian’s moving friendship with a German POW during World War II
Director: Kerry Kolbe

videoWar and peace
A French resistance fighter reluctantly revisits her past in this Oscar-winning portrait
25 minutes

videoWar and peace
‘She is living on in many hearts’ – Otto Frank on the legacy of his daughter’s diary
12 minutes

videoWar and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes

videoMental health
A haunting exploration of a Holocaust survival story that offers no redemption
8 minutes

videoChildhood and adolescence
When your parents survived Auschwitz, where do you fit into the family story?
15 minutes

videoBiography and memoir
On the train to Auschwitz, a young woman is faced with a life-shattering choice
14 minutes

videoMood and emotion
The 94-year-old Holocaust survivor who makes every Purim costume contest count
10 minutes

videoFamily life
Shaggy bear story: a German filmmaker grapples with his dear grandfather’s Nazi past
8 minutes

videoFamily life
Against her father’s warnings, Debra resolves to learn about his time in Auschwitz
4 minutes