Several weeks ago, my sister, Alexandra came upon a small prayer book that had once belonged to our father, Mr. Justice H.A.D. Oliver. Q.C. Inside was a small, handwritten inscription​.

“What and where is Tatura?” It only took Alexandra five minutes to discover the story our father had kept secret for more than 70 years.​

The Voyage of the Dunera

The following entry is from Wikipedia:

“On 10 July 1940, 2,542 detainees, all classified as “enemy aliens”, were embarked aboard the ship HMT Dunera. 200 Italian and 251 German prisoners of war, as well as several dozen Nazi sympathizers, the majority were 2,036 Italian and German civilians who were anti-Nazi, most of them Jewish refugees. Some had already been to sea but their ship, the SS Arandora Star, had been torpedoed en route to Canada, with great loss of life.

In addition to the passengers were 309 poorly trained guards, mostly from the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, as well as seven officers and the ship’s crew, creating a total complement of almost twice the Dunera’s capacity as a troop carrier of 1,600.

Most internees were kept below decks throughout the voyage, except for daily 10-minute exercise periods, during which internees would walk around the deck under heavy guard; during one such period, a guard smashed beer bottles on the deck so that the internees would have to walk on the shards.

While passing through the Irish Sea, the Dunera was struck by a torpedo that failed to detonate; a second torpedo passed underneath the vessel, which was lifted out of its path by the rough seas. It was discovered, from a German submarine captain’s diary, that the Dunera was only saved from being destroyed because of the German-language items tossed overboard, and then discovered by a passing U-boat”.

For more information on the plight of our father’s fellow “Dunera” survivors, please visit the National Museum of Australia: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining…/resources/dunera-boys

Vancouver January 2011:
The canvas upon which we create the story of our identity is never blank. We grow up assuming we have the power to define ourselves, when in reality the past is clouded with secrets and nothing- including our very selves is what it seems.

What if the picture behind you shifted and, all of a sudden, you were no longer the person you thought you were? What if you were to discover that everything you knew about your family’s origins was a fabrication?

Five years ago this happened to me when a suitcase was discovered in the basement of our Vancouver home. We opened it to find papers belonging to our grandfather identifying him as film producer of Expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and placing him at the center of a vast sphere of influence as founding director of Germany’s UFA Studios.

How could we explain the papers describing his survival from a 1934 Nazi assassination plot? Far from merely revealing the last testament of a movie mogul, the Pandora’s box contained a secret, one which our own father had kept from us: We were a family of Jewish exiles who’d erased their identities in a bid for survival.

(more…)

Oliver resigns…The Regrouping of the Board of the Decla-Bioscop

On December 2nd, 1920, we received the following message from the board of the Decla-Bioscop Film Company: 

As of this day, Mr. D. Oliver has resigned from the board of Decia-Bioscop A.G. He is to be replaced by Mr. Rudolf Meinert. Mr. Erich Pommer takes over the factory…

And so what we have previously foretold, as a probable course of events some time ago has now become fact. The reversal is complete: Rudolf Meinert will move to Viktoriastrasse in place of the exiled director Oliver and Erich Pommer will take over the orphaned film factory department in Friedrichstrasse. All other items remain unchanged; foreign trade and distribution will remain affiliated under the central administration.

And the reasons for Oliver’s friendly resignation, which will undoubtedly lead to the transfer of his capitalist participation into other hands?…the same motives from which Ufa-Decla’s predecessors had failed, were also deciding factors in the sudden decision of Director Oliver. The organizations of the big corporations presuppose a multitude of personalities, all of whose voices must be heard on all decisions.

It is quite understandable if a man possessed of the characteristics of Oliver cannot fit into these forms of organization and that he should so easily tend to break up organizational presuppositions. Director Oliver acted upon the consequences of his temperament, his business policy, his disposition for his nature and left his influential position within the Decla Group.

Director Oliver is one of the most controversial and effective personalities in the German film industry. We have often had occasion to deal with his work critically, and have often arrived at conclusions not always sympathetic to Mr. Oliver. But it can be said without hesitation that he is one of the most generous business politicians in our industry. What we have written two years ago when he left the Ufa Group, we can only reiterate here: the numerous attacks against Oliver prove he possesses one of the most distinctive profiles within our industry. Whoever has ever had to deal with him knows how a skillful a subcontractor he is, how high his ambitions are and how he has adapted himself to every situation. It is to be assumed that a man of such activity and energy will not stand idly aside in these economic times, and we shall not be astonished when the name Oliver will in a very short time be mentioned again and in a no doubt surprising and generous combination.

Rudolf Meinert, Oliver’s successor, has done a bit of work on his previous post, which he can rightly be proud of. His work is above all the construction of the Neubabelsberger factory transforming it from a land without shape or form into a model plant. Into his new post he brings his business experience as a long-time film maker, with his pencil in hand, his dispositions. Mr. Erich Pommer, whose past has predestined him as head of production among the other members of the Management Board, will have ample opportunity in this position, as well as hitherto, for the development of the Group.

Here is an interesting article (written in Portuguese) I recently came upon in an issue of “A União” dated March 13, 1921:

Those of you who are only fluent in English  can get the financial details here:

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“Bearing witness: When family secrets become personal truths” by Marsha Lederman

On Sunday, April 10th, Vancouver’s Van City Theatre will present the forgotten 1920 fantasy film Genuine.

The little-known followup to Robert Wiene’s classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Genuine is the story of a vampire femme fatale kept by a rich madman.

Produced by Berlin’s Decla-Bioscop company, Genuine has for many years existed only in fragments. Vancouver film maker Mark Oliver, grandson of one of the film’s original producers has taken on the task of painstakingly reassembling all known material to create a new, condensed version.

An opiated journey into a fantasy netherworld, no other film so closely evokes the spirit, (and decadence) of Weimar Berlin. Genuine must be seen to believed!

This special screening will feature live musical accompaniment by The Oliver-Film Ensemble:

Daniel Ruiz-percussion

Marc Wild-Electric Guitar

Matt O’Donnell-Electric Bass & Sitar

Vi-An Diep-Guzheng

Justin Patterson-Loops, Samples & Electronic Percussion

FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT:Van City Theatre

An interesting article from The Moving Picture World, April 1916

Who knew there was interactive cinema in 1916? David Oliver’s Berlin film company reaches out to anyone with an original idea for a movie. The contest is unfortunately closed…for now anyways!

Top right column

“Prompted by the idea of raising the standard of films and also with a view towards encouraging the talent in young German writers, the Oliver Film Company has inaugurated a film idea contest.  All ideas received up to the 29th of February, 1916, and which are produced in film during the current year will be paid for upon acceptance with 300 marks. The film must not exceed 1,000 meters and should preferably be divided into three acts, although this last stipulation is not exacting. Books on the rental of these films will be kept and the author whose film will register the highest returns will be rewarded with a prize of 1,500 Marks, the second and third highest with respectively 1,000 Marks and 500 Marks…”

Now classified as an “enemy alien”, former cinema baron David Oliver finds himself a prisoner in the dreaded, half-built housing estate known as Huyton Internment Camp, outside of Liverpool.

“A Request for Freedom”