NPR

'The Invisibles' Reveals How Some Jews Survived Nazi Germany By Hiding In Plain Sight

"You just had to ignore the fear in your gut and push it away, become someone else," recalls one Jewish survivor, now 94. "I had to act like a regular Berliner. And this is what saved me in the end."
Alice Dwyer plays the young Hanni Lévy in <em>The Invisibles, </em>which focuses on the lives of four German Jews who stayed in Germany during World War II and survived.

Hanni Weissenberg, now Hanni Lévy, survived as a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Today, the petite and lively 94-year-old lives in Paris. Earlier this month, she returned to Berlin, her home during the war years, to attend the screening of a film about her and other Jews who survived while hiding under the noses of the Nazis.

The Invisibles, a German documentary-drama based on the accounts of four survivors, opened Friday in the U.S.

In the film, Lévy is depicted first at age 17, sitting in her Berlin apartment in 1943, with the Gestapo pounding on the door.

"That's when I knew it was now or never," Lévy tells NPR. "I knew I had to disappear. When they knocked like that, usually you had to open. But I didn't."

She managed to

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR5 min readCrime & Violence
Migrant Crime Is Politically Charged, But The Reality Is More Complicated
Republicans have raised the alarm about a migrant crime wave. Nationally, crime is down even as immigration has surged, but the concerns are real in some neighborhoods.
NPR2 min read
Tiny Desk Contest Fan Favorite: nobigdyl.
Last week, we asked fans what their favorite entry from this year's Tiny Desk Contest was — and 10,000 of you voted. We're excited to share that the winner of our Fan Favorite vote is "Go With The Ghost" by nobigdyl.! The band, which is based in Murf
NPR3 min read
Tornadoes Tear Through The Southeastern U.S. As Storms Leave 3 Dead
Forecasters warned a wave of dangerous storms in the U.S. could march through parts of the South early Thursday, after deadly storms a day earlier spawned damaging tornadoes and massive hail.

Related Books & Audiobooks