Munich – Film legends Uschi Glas and Charlotte Knobloch sit opposite each other week after week. In the office of the President of the Munich Jewish Community and former President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. A safe place in the middle of a noisy world. Since the spring of 2025, two women, two lives, two stories meet here. Soon there was a deep understanding between the actress and the Holocaust survivor. It was as if they were just waiting for each other.
Uschi Glas and Charlotte Knobloch had known each other for a long time through Jewish friends and as part of Munich society. They call each other by their first names, but they know each other. What happened next, as we talked, was more than just friendship. It was a confession. About attitude. For humanity. And the reality is sometimes painful.
A declaration of love for a bold look
The book “You Are Unbearable, Truth” emerged from this conversation. It will be published on November 12 (Mosaic, 22 euros). A declaration of love for a bold look. A manifesto against forgetting. And the testimony of two women who grew up in very different worlds but spoke the same language when it mattered most.
From 1942 until the end of the war, Charlotte Knobloch was declared the illegitimate daughter of Kreszentia Hummel of Arberg and was thus saved from deportation
“It makes people want to read more,” Charlotte Knobloch told BILD. “We are book readers ourselves. We know what moves us and what we can give to others.” Uschi Glas: “We want people to not only read our story, but also understand why they have to move on. Memories are also a responsibility.”
BILD has read the book and caught up with both women for a chat. A special meeting with two small and tall women, both still working. And people in the best sense of the word. One, Knobloch, had just turned 93, the other, Glas, celebrated his 82nd birthday on March 2. They are daughters, mothers, grandmothers and wives. They laughed and cried together. When you read, you are very close to them.
For Charlotte Knobloch, it was love at first sight
It makes you smile when Charlotte Knobloch talks about her husband Samuel Knobloch, “my great love”, who died in 1990. A survivor of the Kraków Ghetto. When he saw her for the first time he immediately fell in love, but being with her took longer. “I asked him if he wanted my number. At first he refused.” He smiled. After one New Year’s Eve a spark struck and they have been together ever since. Their dream: They want to leave Germany after everything that happened. Start a new life, in Australia or America. Three children were born, but the young family remained in Munich.
Charlotte Neuland (then 18, Wednesday) married Samuel Knobloch (28, died 1990) in January 1951
Yes, love is possible, no matter what. This is also a beautiful message from Charlotte Knobloch, born in Munich in 1932. As a child, she lived in hiding on a farm in Upper Bavaria, under a false name. Her non-Jewish mother left her husband and child after Hitler came to power and divorced in 1937. When little Charlotte happened to meet her mother on the street in downtown Munich, she looked away. Enduring that as a child seems unbelievable when you read it.
Knobloch’s grandmother was murdered
His beloved grandmother Albertine was murdered in Theresienstadt, his father, the Jewish lawyer and later Bavarian senator Fritz Neuland, was forced to do hard labor in an ordnance battery factory. Charlotte, her only child, escaped deportation because she was saved by a very brave woman: Kreszentia Hummel. A Catholic, a heroine, hides the girl. In 2017, he was posthumously honored as “Righteous Among the Nations.”
Uschi Glas listens to “Dear Charlotte”. Shut up. Surprised. Very moved. His childhood was different, but also marked by silence. Four kids, little money. His father never talked about the war. The mother avoided the question. Only decades later, when the actress had long been one of Germany’s most famous women, did she begin to search for the truth. And found it.
Family happiness in early 1983: Uschi Glas (then 40 years old) with his sons Alexander (10 months, left) and Benjamin (6, right) and their parents Christian (69, died 1992) and Josey Glas (64, died 1996) at home in Munich
Uschi Glas commissioned a genealogist in early 2025
What he found shocked him greatly. His father himself had been a member of the NSDAP since December 1 1931, two years before Adolf Hitler came to power. He had to fight as a soldier. In 1944 Christian Glas joined the Waffen-SS division, “Skanderbeg”. It was partly responsible for numerous war crimes in the Balkans and the deportation of several hundred Jews to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. However, this happened before he was assigned to the division as a radio operator. Therefore, there is no evidence of personal wrongdoing. But: “That’s the painful truth,” he said Uschi glass. “But I want to know. I don’t want to press it any longer.”
Charlotte Knobloch listen. Shut up. With dignity. And clarity that gives courage. He knows silence. All his life he struggled against forgetting. For memories. For democracy. For humanity. He warned: “Hate has not disappeared. It is returning. Right in the midst of our society.”
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded Israel. Murder, rape, kidnapping. Anti-Semitism emerged openly. Not only in the Middle East, but also on the streets of Germany. Uschi Glas immediately reacted. Since then, she has taken to the streets of Munich almost every Sunday with her husband Dieter Hermann. Shut up. Determined. For the release of the hostages. For Jewish life in Germany. For what he believes.
BILD deputy editor-in-chief Tanja May (52, left) meets Charlotte Knobloch and Uschi Glas to discuss
Uschi Glas: “I cannot remain silent”
“We are not Jews,” Glas said. “But we have Jewish friends. And we have responsibilities. I can’t sit idly by.” He talks about attitude. Not as a pose, but as an obligation. About his mother, who taught him from an early age to “sit on the other side of the table.” About the courage to make yourself unpopular. About the shock when anti-Semitism suddenly became socially accepted again.
Charlotte Knobloch nodded. He knows everything. “We thought it was over. But maybe we were too quiet.” Uschi Glas replied: “Maybe. But now we can’t stay silent any longer.” The conversation between the two women was not a pleasant program. They are absurd in the best sense. And there’s always the answer: attitude.
“Truth is not a rigid principle,” says Uschi Glas. “It’s an attitude. And anyone who wants it has to be prepared to accept the pain.” Charlotte Knobloch added: “We live in a time where posture is no longer comfortable. But it is essential for survival.”
The book “You Are Unbearable, The Truth” will be published by Mosaik on November 12
Uschi Glas said of the joint book: “I want young people in particular to read it. Many people know little about the history, around October 7, of anti-Semitism. This book is intended to be enlightening.” Charlotte Knobloch added: “I want parents to read too. Those whose children are just growing up. They need to sit at the table with them and talk. This book can be a stimulus for that.”
The book is a gift. It’s about the power of memory. About learning from the past. And it’s about a friendship between two women, which shows that dialogue is possible. Listening is possible. Understanding is possible. At the end of approximately 240 pages there are sentences by poet Rose Auslander. He couldn’t let go of Uschi Glas. And that is the title of this special book. “You are truly attractive, Truth. I recognize you and call you happiness.”
