Shining Through

- Do you have any water?

- Sure. Can we have some water?

Watch your step.

Charles Goodwin, Linda Voss.

- Pleasure to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Where shall I sit?

- Here will be fine.

There you go. There's some water. If you

need anything else, I'll get it for you.

I'm not really sure

I'll be able to do this.

Just relax and sit opposite me

and answer my questions.

- I've never done this before.

- I'll be easy, I promise.

- How are you?

- Fine.

Can we get a sound check?

Can we just have a few words,

just for the sound man?

- What should I say?

- Say anything.

I've always had such a big mouth.

Now I don't know what to say.

A little more, please?

To tell you the truth,

I don't know if I should be doing this.

Everyone told me that I should. They said

"Is the BBC and they'll do it right. "

- We will do it right, I promise.

- That's fine!

Just relax.

Are we ready?

- This is a BBC production. Interview...

- You wanted the scrapbook?

We'll do it later.

We'll have film clips and photographs.

- I see. - If we could just

finish getting the slate.

- Sorry.

- "Hitler's Germany... "

- What film clips?

- You'll see when is finished. I promise.

- OK?

- Sorry.

"Hitler's Germany,

Part 5:
Women in the War. " Mark.

So just relax.

You've got all the time in the world.

- Do I start?

- Tell me about the war.

When did you first

become interested in it?

The movies.

There they are.

War movies.

Anything set in Germany.

It didn't matter if it was the

First World War or the Second.

I especially loved

anything set in Berlin.

They're over the border!

From the time I was a child, my grandmother

and my father told me stories

about their beloved city.

- You spoke German at home?

- To my mother, I spoke English.

She was Irish.

Born in Brooklyn.

To my father, I spoke German,

but he warned me to

keep this language a secret

because outside of our neighbourhood

in Queens, New York,

if people heard

me speak German,

they would either think I

was a Nazi sympathiser,

or they would

know I was a Jew.

"... wird es von Tag

zu Tag schlimmer. "

"Hitlers neuste Verordnung

"besagt dass Juden keine

Deutschen mehr sind...

- "Und alle einen gelben Stern... "

- In English, please.

For us poor Irish trash.

Thank you.

"We are no longer

allowed to use a public toilet,

nor can Hannah, Sofi or

I go to a beauty parlour

because Hitler says the

hair of a Jew is infectious. "

"We hear rumours everywhere

that Jews are being

rounded up and sent away. "

"We don't know where. "

"We have been invited by friends

to hide with them

somewhere in Berlin. "

I guess it was then

that the fantasy began.

I dreamed of parachuting into

Germany and rescuing them...

my father's two sisters, Hannah and Liesel,

and Hannah's daughter Sofi,

who played the flute and was

just a year younger than I.

I dreamed of seeing Sofi on the

concert stage in New York City,

playing her flute, just for me.

The doomed city of Warsaw,

pounded by Hitler's guns...

So you contacted the War Department

about becoming a spy.

I wouldn't have known who to

contact about becoming a spy.

In 1940, when all of Europe

was struggling against Hitler,

I was just a young girl

struggling to get out of Queens.

I remember how

intimidating the city was.

And I remember the first sight of

the man who would change my life.

This is not our war!

Is not our problem!

If any blood is gonna be shed

keeping Hitler out of England,

let it be English blood,

not American!

Because is not our war!

Is not our problem!

And anyone who says America

should get involved in this war

is a Jew-loving commie,

Franklin Delano

Rosenberg included!

- Why don't you go home?

- Why don't you go home?

We got another one here!

I am sure your typing skills are superior,

Miss Voss, but

a degree from Queens Clerical College

is a bit beneath our standards.

Our legal secretaries

come directly from Vassar.

I'm sure you understand.

Oh, I understand.

So unless you have something

to add to change my mind, I,

I'm afraid I

really couldn't...

Lower your standards?

Listen, I wouldn't want you to.

You might have to work with someone

who's had to get her hands dirty.

And I'm sure that would be uncomfortable

for you and the girls from Vassar.

I went to Vassar, by the way.

My uncle's car broke down at

the front gate. I had to pick him up.

Place looked like a real shithole to me.

Thank you very much.

I am so sorry.

Don't worry,

it's just a water.

I'll lose my job.

I have two children...

Miss Voss.

You failed to mention that

you speak a second language.

Since all demands for payment have gone

unanswered, like the billing in September...

...the statement

September this year...

- We have no choice...

- Haben wir keine andere Wahl...

but to impound the shipment

of cement wagons...

als alle Zementlaster

zu beschlagnahmen...

- Until proper reparations are made.

- Bis die Reparationskosten bezahlt sind.

Laster is truck.

I said wagon.

You said cement wagon.

Laster is correct.

You're very certain of yourself,

which is good.

You'll have to be. Please.

We run an international practice here,

and we're trying to disentangle certain

companies from their affairs in Germany.

Unfortunately, one of our senior

partners has a tin ear for languages,

which leaves him

somewhat handicapped.

Graduated cum laude from Harvard,

but flunked out of Berlitz.

He also has a lousy disposition

and runs through secretaries

like a bowling ball through tenpins.

Incidentally,

we call him the pallbearer

because he rarely cracks a smile.

- Come in.

- He also dislikes women who wear hats.

Hi.

I saw you on the street this morning,

with that speaker?

Yeah...

What did you say to him?

I just suggested he might be more

comfortable speaking somewhere else.

You were great.

Reminded me of Jimmy Stewart

in The Mortal Storm.

Did you ever see it?

No.

Is a great film.

Whas with the blackout?

You expecting Hitler to bomb us tonight?

Sometimes I think

better in the dark.

Ed Leland, Linda Voss.

90 words a minute, bilingual dictation,

works a Mimeograph,

and speaks German with the

accent of a Berlin butcher's wife.

- How's that for a last-minute save?

- Berlin butcher's wife?

Taught by her grandmother,

who's from Berlin.

But she wasn't married to a butcher.

My grandfather owned a button factory.

Till it burned down.

Your... your grandmother,

did she insist you speak...

German?

She doesn't speak English.

She's...

She's lived here for...

My sixth-grade teacher

used to do that.

- Beg your pardon? - You know,

start a question and not finish it.

Like

"The capital of Indiana is...?"

She's been in this

country for 18 years.

So my question is, if she's lived here

for 18 years, why doesn't she speak...

English.

She prefers German.

- Does she prefer Germany?

- She's Jewish.

- You're Jewish?

- Half.

Is that a problem

in this company?

No, no! It just means we're half-sure

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