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Diffe­rent from the Start

Dis­cussion with Harry Raymon, Eyewit­ness to History (video recording available, in German)

Portrait of Harry Raymon with film poster in the background

Harry Raymon in front of the film poster for Regentropfen (Raindrops); STROUXedition, 26 Sep 2021

Harry Ray­mon was born in 1926 in Kirch­berg, a town in the Hunsrück upland of south­western Germany, to a family of Jewish business­people. In 1936, his family fled the Nazis and emigrated to the United States. During his military service, Harry Ray­mon began studying acting. Among his teachers was Erwin Piscator (in New York), and among his class­mates were Tony Curtis, Harry Belafonte, and Marlon Brando. After the war, he first re­turned to France, then Germany, where he em­barked on a success­ful career as an actor, director, voice actor, panto­mime, model, and writer.

In his 1982 film Regen­tropfen (Raindrops), Harry Raymon tells the story of his family during the Nazi era. In 2020, he pub­lished his auto­biography Anders von Anfang an: Nach­denken über ein langes Leben (Different from the Start: Contem­plating a Long Life), an important testi­mony, also in terms of queer perspectives.

recording available

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The W. M. Blumenthal Academy is marked in green

Where

W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)

Video recording from 28 February, in German; Jewish Museum Berlin 2022

A conver­sation with Harry Ray­mon and Aubrey Pome­rance, director of the Jewish Museum Berlin Archive

Where, when, what?

  • WhenMon 28 Feb 2022, 7 pm
  • Where W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
    Klaus Mangold Auditorium
    Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
    (Opposite the Museum)
    See location on map

Event Series: Eyewitness Talks (15)

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