The Mischlinge Exposé
On September 15, 1935, the Nazis enacted two race laws: the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. These laws defined and discriminated against numerous groups in the Nazi regime, including the Mischlinge – a derogatory term for those neither fully Jewish nor fully Aryan in the view of the Nazis.
The Mischlinge Exposé is the first multi-media production conceived, created and directed by Carolyn Enger and weaves a tapestry around this little known aspect of the Holocaust. Using source materials of her godmother’s testimony from the Shoah Foundation and her father’s family documents and testimony, both labeled Mischling, Grade A by the Nazis, combined with the music of composers from the salon period who converted to Christianity in the decades before the war and works reacting to questions of identity following the war; The Mischlinge Exposé vividly illustrates what it was like to be between worlds in Germany in the first half of the 20th century. Through the telling of her family story, Ms. Enger’s concert and live documentary directly addresses universally significant issues of identity and inclusion, encouraging empathy, tolerance, and engagement.