The Lost Glass Empire  

a documentary for release in 2024 

co-sponsored by the Austrian Government

 

 

Presenting an apt but real story and vital reminder for today's society -

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Two once remarkable family run Austrian businesses, a successful private bank, second only in ranking to the Rothschild’s bank and a vast Glass Manufacturing enterprise, were lost to the Nazis and subsequent Socialist regime. A son retraces his Mother’s journey and escape from Austria, revisiting his Austrian family heritage linking these two extraordinary families and their fight & flight for survival.

 

This leads on to discovery of once large family estates including a large Water Castle, mansions in Austria and Prague, a large Viennese bank Building and an artwork of greater significance than the 'Woman in Gold'. Still in existence, depicting the most accurate representation of one of the greatest music composers of all time. Hidden from public view for years, but with exclusive access, now revealed in this documentary and awaiting restitution to family heirs. 

 

We meet an Auschwitz concentration camp Holocaust survivor, still alive and whom once played with Anne Frank as a young girl and incredibly, became her step-Sister posthumously. This astounding family heritage journey takes us along the river Thames in London, to Vienna Austria, to a quaint alpine village in Switzerland, all over the Czech Republic and on to Auschwitz in Poland. Finally reaching safety and a strange new life in Australia. A staggering family story that takes us from a once great Glass empire, to ‘Kristallnacht’ , the infamous ‘Night of Broken Glass’ and onwards.