HEIMAT

“Heimat” is a captivating story about an emigrant who leaves Germany after World War I in 1929 to start a new life in America. Matthias Schmidt aims to become a successful American citizen and eventually return to his homeland, Neisse, his “Heimat.” or his place of “belonging”. However, his long-term plan changes when he saves the life of an American diplomat from the tracks in Berlin’s Bahnhof. This act of heroism leads to a friendship with the diplomat and three other emigrants, which helps them navigate the challenges of the American dream, the Great Depression, assimilation into American culture, and World War II. During the war, they lose contact with their families in Germany and take different paths, finding work in a shipyard to build the means to destroy Germany and their Heimat, the US Army to fight the Japanese in the Pacific, and, later, the Polish resistance in Poland, conscription into Germany’s Wehrmacht to invade France, Russia and fight against Americans in the Battle of the Bulge, participating in the Nuremberg trials to bring Nazi war criminals to justice.