Strawberries with the Führer

Helga Tiscenko was 15 when she and her family fled the Allied forces advance in Germany. Three years later, her dad — a Nazi General — was executed for war crimes. Nearly 50 years after migrating to NZ, Tiscenko published a memoir about her childhood and her much-loved father, trying to make sense of his involvement in a terrible chapter of history. In documentary Strawberries with the Führer, Tiscenko recalls her child's view of the nationalist fervour whipped up by Adolf Hitler and her terrifying experiences at the war's end. Her daughter Katerina Tiscenko discusses the painful weight of her family's legacy. 

In the early days I remember tuning into a radio broadcast which came on at seven o'clock just after we had tea, and they always started with great marching music which was wonderful to listen to, and then you had reports of the German army advancing victoriously here and there and everywhere. There was never any report of so and so many people were killed, and never reports of heavy losses or never reports of any civilians being hurt. It was just advance, advance, advance, yeah. And you felt good about it, you felt proud about it, you never thought of what it entailed as a 10-year-old, 11-year-old, you don't.

– Helga Tiscenko on listening to state media broadcasts about WWII while living in Germany

Key Cast & Crew

Amy O'Connor

Producer, Editor, Director, Camera Operator

Leila Adu

Composer

Helga Tiscenko

Subject

John Chrisstoffels

Camera Operator

Katerina Tiscenko

Subject

Anna Cottrell

Producer