Strawberries with the Führer
Strawberries with the Führer
Words: Kim Newth Photos: supplied
Documentary maker Amy O’Connor, who grew up in Rangiora, returns to her home town this month for a special screening of her latest work, Strawberries with the Führer. Four years in the making, the documentary tells the true story of Helga Tiscenko, whose father was a Nazi General, and the ongoing impacts of her traumatic and violent family legacy.
Amy O’Connor, who may well be Rangiora’s only documentary maker, was never in any doubt that the memoir of a Nazi General’s daughter was great material for a documentary.
It was a hugely ambitious project for the young producer and director to bring Helga Tiscenko’s story to the screen; at the time, Amy was in her first year as a freelancer in Wellington, with only a limited idea of how difficult it was going to be to fund and produce such a project.
When filming first began with her elderly subject, Amy imagined her documentary would be a simple re-telling of Tiscenko’s vivid and bestselling autobiography, Strawberries with the Führer.
However, as time passed, the project grew in complexity as Amy began to expand its scope to include Helga’s own daughter Katerina, and the next generation in Germany who share similar pasts.
Amy, who funded much of the documentary herself, is pleased to see all the effort now beginning to reap some recognition: Strawberries with the Führer, which had its successful premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival in Wellington earlier this month, has recently been picked up to screen in New Zealand and Australia later this year on BBC Knowledge.
Helga Tiscenko was just 18 when her father, Hermann Höfle, was executed for war crimes arising from his role in suppressing the Slovak partisan uprising in 1944.
Growing up in Nazi Germany, Helga understood only that her parents were loving and intelligent people. She likens her experience of being chosen to present Hitler with a bunch of forget-me-nots at his birthday celebration one year to what it would feel like for a child of today to meet a pop star. They ate strawberries and ice cream together; Helga shared her parents’ unquestioning devotion to the Nazi regime.
As the Third Reich collapsed, the reality of its atrocities was fully exposed. Helga fled the Allied advance, barely escaping with her life. Her father was executed as a war criminal. Helga and her Russian husband escaped Europe for a new life in South Canterbury, New Zealand – and rarely spoke of the past.
In her 70s, Helga finally decided to break the silence and write of her life’s upheavals and of the near impossibility of reconciling how two honourable and caring people like her parents could have come to be so involved in the Nazi regime.
“She now sees vividly how economic hardship, social upheaval and social deprivation can spawn despotic leaders like Hitler and the dangers of mass hysteria,” says Amy, who travelled to Germany and Slovakia to further research Hermann Höfle’s war-time role.
The material she uncovered was relayed back to Helga’s daughter Katerina, who grew up largely ignorant of her grandparents’ Nazi connection. “There was a time when Katerina thought people would hold her past against her, but I think that time has passed now although she continues to carry the feeling of guilt by association. She has been an amazing part of this documentary. I believe that talking about it has been the best thing for her, and I also found the younger generation I met in Germany, with a similar family history, to be very forthcoming.”
While in Germany, Amy met and interviewed Alexandra Senfft whose family history echoes Katerina’s and whose struggle to make sense of the past is also a powerful part of the documentary.
The 26-year-old documentary maker credits Rangiora High School’s art room for kick-starting her interest in a fine arts career. As a fifth former, it was photography that really attracted Amy and she fondly remembers the huge amount of encouragement she received from the school to seek a place at Canterbury University’s School of Fine Arts.
From photography, it was a natural progression to explore film-making. One of her first documentaries, made while at university, was called Breaking the Mould and looked at women working in non-traditional roles, such truck driver, coal miner, helicopter pilot and shepherd.
“I loved it. In some ways, their stories echoed my own because I was entering a field that used to be a male dominated profession.”
In 2007 she moved to Wellington and spent a year in freelance work before starting work with KrafthausFilms, a boutique cinema, television, TV commercial and video production house.
“The director of the company, David Stubbs – and other colleagues – has been amazing. I don’t think this project would have got as far without his help. For example, I’ve been able to use their edit suite, and David has generally been very supportive.
“Experienced New Zealand documentary maker Anna Cottrell, who identified Helga’s story as one that must be told, also came on board early on as a mentor and co-produced this film with me. Anna’s support and encouragement of the story, and of me as a documentary maker, has been invaluable.”
Amy found it hard to attract funding for Strawberries with the Führer. While everyone recognized it as “a great story”, it didn’t necessarily meet established funding criteria. “I’ve personally had to cover a lot of the costs of making it, but I don’t regret that. I’ve had the most amazing experiences over the past four years – it has been well worth it.”
She shares Helga’s view: by telling such experiences as hers, it illustrates how easy it is to get swept along by events, particularly at a young age.
“Not many ten-year-olds would ask questions about what their parents – or their country’s government – were doing. Helga’s world came tumbling down at the end of the world when the atrocities of it all were suddenly revealed and, at the same time, she lost her father.”
Prior to Strawberries with the Führer, Amy made a documentary about the seamy side of life in Canterbury during the 1860s and she has also assisted on other documentaries including Putting Homelessness into Perspective, Trouble is my Business and The Victory Primary Story.
At KrafthausFilms, one of her more recent projects has been producing online content for organisations like Deaf Aotearoa.
She is looking forward to showing Strawberries with the Führer in Rangiora later this month. “As my mother says, “You can take the girl out of Rangiora, but you can’t take Rangiora out of the girl! I still feel very much attached to Rangiora and to Canterbury.”
Strawberries with the Führer will screen at the Rangiora Regent Theatre on Sunday, August 28 at 2pm. Duration: 30 minutes. Open to all ages. Amy O’Connor will be attending the screening and will be available to answer questions. More info at: www.strawberrieswiththefuhrer.com
