We Were So Beloved - DVD Film / Documentary by Manfred Kirchheimer

Between 1933 and 1941, thousands of Jews fled Nazi Germany and Austria for America. Leaving behind brothers, sisters and parents, more than 20,000 of them came together in Washington Heights in New York City, representing the largest German Jewish settlement in the world. The area's large cheap apartments overlooking the river were an attraction to a population that came to America penniless, but with middle-class tastes, furniture, and clothing.
While horrific reports trickled in from the camps, the emigrants cooperated to build their new society. Washington Heights became a German Jewish enclave ubbed "Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson" by those who lived there. Convening on street corners or in cafes for hours, speaking German and forming their own social clubs, the Jews of Washington Heights created an environment that has enhanced the neighborhood's culture to the present day.
Like Shoah and The Sorrow and The Pity, WE WERE SO BELOVED uses gripping personal testimony to examine the complex emotional and philosophical implications of the survival of the Jews of Washington Heights
Run Time: 146 minutes