The Other Life

Narrative Synopsis

The film tells the story of a young Jewish woman who, during the Nazi era, is hidden by her friend, treated in a hospital using her identity papers, and dies there. As a result, her friend loses her official identity. For the first time, the question of the behavior of friends, neighbors, caretakers, and strangers during the persecution of Vienna's Jewish population is raised. Ostensibly, "The Other Life" is a gripping play on identity, but overall, it is an astonishing demonstration of the civil courage of Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897-1976), who, shortly after the war, addressed the then-taboo subject of the persecution of the Jews in his literary work. The ambitious film studio of the Theater in der Josefstadt, which did not last long, took up the material and filmed it with the theater's actors.