As the son of a Jewish mother who escaped the Holocaust by moving to Switzerland ("at the very last moment!"), Dani Levy has had a lifelong fascination with the Third Reich.
As soon as he could, he moved from his home town of Basel to Berlin and launched an acting/directing career in comedies, but the 52-year-old filmmaker says that it wasn't until he was in his mid-30s that his mother could bring herself to talk about his life in Germany, and ask him how the country had changed.
"When I was growing up, the subject of Hitler and the war and the camps — all of that was strictly taboo in the household," says Levi in a recent interview. "It was strange, because there was absolutely no discussion about it. As a child, I couldn't understand why. Now, I understand that there are no amount of words that could lessen the pain of their memories."
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.