In 1942, a Jewish mother, Hella Zacharias, and her five-year-old daughter went into hiding in the Berlin underground. Through Hella’s own resourcefulness and the help of others, both mother and daughter survived through the war. In My Illegal Life (Germany, 2024), writer Esther Dischereit, Hella’s second-born daughter, follows the traces of her mother’s and half-sister’s experiences in hiding.
