Karol Rathaus leaves behind his native Ternopil for Vienna and Berlin rising as one of the bold new voices of Weimar-era music. hen the Nazis force him into exile, he struggles to rebuild his cultural identity, torn between his Jewish roots, German education, and the imaginary Poland of his youth. He ultimately finds safety in obscurity, at the cost of his place in the musical world.
Discovering Karol Rathaus follows the journey of Karol Rathaus, a brilliant classical composer and pioneer of early film music whose meteoric rise in Weimar Berlin was abruptly disrupted by the Nazis. While Rathaus escaped the horrors of extermination, his son Berndt once said: “Hitler killed the composer Karol Rathaus.” This film is an emotional and introspective attempt to understand the meaning behind those words.
At its core, the documentary probes the themes of loss and the search for identity. Rathaus’ complex, multicultural personality becomes its focal point as he struggles to reconcile his Jewish heritage, his lost Austrian-German identity, and the imaginary Poland of his youth. Drawing upon archival footage, personal letters, expert testimonies, and Rathaus’ own poignant compositions, the film explores his inner world, his struggles, bitterness, and unfulfilled dreams through the eyes of Sergei, an alumnus of the music school Rathaus helped to establish in New York.
What makes Rathaus especially compelling is that, through dislocation, disappointments, and the collapse of his career, he remained steadfastly true to his moral and aesthetic principles. He never conformed to passing trends or sought to blend in. His story becomes that of an artist fighting for creative survival as the layers of his identity are stripped away by the storms of history and ultimately finding safety in obscurity at the cost of his place in the musical world.
Film’s protagonist Sergei before interviewing June Rathaus (Karol’s daughter-in-law)
The narrative follows Sergei as he retraces Rathaus’ path from Ternopol to Vienna, Berlin, and London, meeting local historians and musicians who reveal how Rathaus’ creative identity was formed, fractured, and finally diminished in exile. The journey ends in New York, where Sergei speaks with former students, family members, and a scholar of refugee psychology, uncovering the portrait of a man who concealed deep disappointment behind the cheerful demeanor of a devoted teacher. An epilogue offers hope: at a festival concert shown at the film’s start, The Orchestra Now performs Rathaus’ music, as contemporary musicians join Sergei in affirming that this music deserves to be heard again.
Discovering Karol Rathaus is both a resurrection of a forgotten composer and a meditation on exile, identity, and cultural erasure and a step toward restoring Rathaus and his generation of displaced artists to their rightful place in our collective memory.
