Last Waltz in Vienna
With the impending 50th anniversary of the Anschluss - Hitler's annexation of Austria in March 1938 -
Arena offers another chance to see the film based on Georg Klaar 's widely acclaimed autobiography. On Saturday 26 February
1938,17-year-old Georg Klaar went to his first ball in Vienna. It was also his last. Two weeks later, the Germans marched into
Austria. The comfortable world of Georg and his family was utterly destroyed.
Tonight Georg Klaar , now
George Clare , tells his story in a film that traces the fortunes of three generations of Viennese Jews through a troubled period of Austrian history. It begins in Vienna in the 1860s and ends in September 1942 in a tiny village in France from which his parents were to make their last journey. It is this small village which is at the heart of George Clare 's search for his family past - a personal attempt to record the rich cultural heritage which he absorbed and to lay the ghost of a recurring nightmare.
Producer TRISTRAM POWELL
Series editor ALAN YENTOB (R)