The films show Lis Kischinovsky (nee Schermeister, b. August 11, 1922) and her family in Denmark during the 1920s and 1930s. On the morning of Rosh Hashana in October 1943, the Schermeister family was warned of the impending round-up. Lis and her boyfriend left Copenhagen for Snekkersten, where the family had spent many vacations. They were then smuggled to Sweden by a fisherman and landed at Landskrona, where they met up with the rest of the Schermeister family who arrived on another shipping vessel. The next day Lis's father Bernhard, a milliner who is seen frequently in this film footage, committed suicide. The Schermeister family remained in Stockholm until 1945, when they returned to Copenhagen. They found their apartment inhabited by other people but a neighbor had stored all of their possessions for them. The donor, Dov (Bjorn) Kischinovksy, was born in Copenhagen in 1950 to Lis and Avraham Kischinovsky. Dov has an older brother, Mogens, born in 1947.
Havdalah ceremony in the garden in Snekkersten (despite the fact that it is still daylight at night in the summer in Denmark). Present are: Edith and Bernhard Schermeister (donor's grandparents), Edith's mother, father, and sister, Edith and Bernhard's three daughters (Lis, the oldest girl, is the donor's mother), and Bernhard's mother, Hana Schermeister. Edith lights the candle and Bernhard pours the wine. CU of Hana Schermeister.
Havdalah ceremony