Acting Out Against Racism
Iris Berben's career has made her one of Germany's best-loved film stars: for more than three decades she has starred in a series of popular comedies and police thrillers, won a clutch of acting awards, and twice was voted Germany's sexiest woman. But Berben has also pursued a parallel career in Germany as an ambassador for Christian-Jewish understanding. It has not been without danger — at some public appearances she has had a heavy police guard. "I have got used to hate mail and graffiti on my house and car," Berben told TIME. "People sometimes ask me if I still want to go on, and I do, not because I'm a hero or courageous but because I don't want to leave the occasion to these people."
For many of the past 30 years, Berben, a lanky, 52-year-old brunet, has hosted gatherings where she reads texts chosen to fight "German silence" on anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Recently, for example, she has been mixing excerpts from Anne Frank's diary with others from the diaries of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister. "There is anti-Semitism in other countries," says Berben. "But I believe we have a different history — a history for which we are accountable. The way the Third Reich worked is not comparable to any other country."
Raised a Roman Catholic, Berben became interested in Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War: it made her ponder the atrocities committed by the Germans against the Jews, an issue barely touched upon in her school days. When three years ago there was a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Germany, Berben was one of the first public figures to speak out. Wolfgang Thierse, president of the German parliament, noted that there "are only a few artists who fight for democracy and tolerance so consistently and with so much credibility as Iris Berben."
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