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WOULD YOU HIDE THEM? FORMER WILMETTE RESIDENT BETH LANE TELLS THE REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW HER MOTHER AND SIX AUNTS AND UNCLES ESCAPED NAZI GERMANY TO START A NEW LIFE IN AMERICA. BY MITCH HURST THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
The scene unfolds around a dining room table at a family gathering in Hoffman Estates in 2019. Beth Lane is surveying the room, asking her aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews to tally the size of their immediate family. Estimates are offered, most ranging between the 20s and the 40s. Then Lane reaches for a collection of Post-it Notes, each representing a family member, and then informally addresses the room. “I premise this by saying that if Paula and Arthur Schmidt had not done what they did, the people in my hand wouldn’t be here,” says the former Wilmette resident and graduate of New Trier Township High School. One-by-one, Lane puts each Post-it Note on the table. In total, there are 72. Seventytwo lives. The scene is included in what will be a feature-length documentary titled Would You Hide Me? that Lane is directing about the remarkable survival of the seven Weber children who escaped Nazi Germany and migrated to America in 1946. The youngest of those children is Lane’s mother, Ginger. The story of the seven Weber children who journeyed to America from Germany was first told in an article in The New York Times when they arrived. But there was, and continues to be, much, much more to the saga. The Times noted that it had been the largest group of children to come to Ellis Island unaccompanied by adults, and once processed, they would be fostered in homes in Chicago. What the Times article did not mention was that two Christian farmers, Paula and Arthur Schmidt, had hidden all seven children in their home in Germany for two years. When production first started on her film, Lane titled it Worin, after the town where
her mother and siblings were hidden by the Schmidts. She changed the name to Would You Hide Me? to capture the moral conundrum the Schmidts faced and to challenge viewers to consider the question in our current cultural and political context. “The real question that we’re asking isn't so much about whether someone would hide me, but would I ever have the courage or bravery to hide someone?” Lane says. “What’s intriguing to me is that there's a spectrum about how far you'll go to protect anything—your reputation or another human being. I think that's a fascinating way to pose the question.” Lane’s family story has made her somewhat of an accidental filmmaker. Born in Lakeview and raised in Wilmette, she grew
up interested in dance and theater. Her mother is a former ballet instructor and ran a dance studio in their garage in Wilmette while Lane was young. She participated in theater productions throughout her middle school and high school years, including the Continued on PG 10
Former Wilmette resident Beth Lane (shown above) has made a documentary about her family's escape from Nazi Germany. Her mother and siblings (shown below) are shown at a children's center before emigrating to the U.S. PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHAD BATKA