When Daniel Dreifuss, the Jewish producer of the Oscar-nominated remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, first read the script, he thought of his own relatives who had fought with the German army.
The anti-war film released on Netflix is up for nine awards at tonight’s Hollywood gala including for best picture and best international film.
A cousin of his grandfather was killed in battle while fighting for Germany just two days before the end of the First World War in November 1918.
His grandfather, who was also a German soldier, survived - but two decades later was thrown into a concentration camp by the Nazis during Kristallnacht.
As memories of his family came to mind, “I said, ‘I know these people,’” he told JTA. “Not because they are some distant relatives that I’ve heard of, but because I am the grandson of one of those kids who were in the film.”
Daniel Dreifuss
Daniel Dreifuss (Linked-In)
The original adaptation of the 1928 novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which was directed by the Jewish director Lewis Milestone, won the Oscar for best film in 1930. The Nazis came to denounce it as a “Judenfilm”.
“I love that my name will be associated with a story that was deemed degenerate by that regime,” the Brazilian-born producer told JTA.
Among the other contenders for best picture at tonight’s Oscars is Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans.
Meanwhile, Mr Dreifuss’s next project, a mini-series about CIA operations in the Middle East produced with the co-creators of Fauda, is due to reach screens later in the year.
