Across Time and Space

A film about the Bondy and Roeper schools

In 2002, filmmaker Kathryn Golden released “Across Time and Space,” an hour-long documentary about Annemarie Roeper’s parents, Max and Gertrud Bondy, who were progressive, humanistic Jewish educators who established Marienau, a boarding school in Germany where children were taught self-awareness, tolerance and democracy.  Annemarie met George when he came as a student in 1924. George was a student leader and helped developed the school’s democratic decision-making structures.

This film features a number of interviews with Annemarie, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 93, and includes archival footage from Windsor Mountain School, as well as new footage from Roeper and Marienau in the 1990s, plus interviews with family members and alumni of the schools.  It explains the roots of George and Annemarie’s educational philosophy and how the trauma they suffered in Germany strengthened their belief that democracy, tolerance and non-violence are the only paths to a humane world.

Two clips from the film are available online. The first covers the rise of the Nazi Party and its impact on the Bondy family.  The second explores the education at The Roeper School.

The rise of the Nazi Party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwfqX90tF6w

Education at Roeper:

https://youtu.be/BNUGGM0RpFk