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Alia Bhatt, who is currently promoting her film Jigra, shared in a recent interview that her maternal great-grandfather lived in Germany and led a rebellion against Adolf Hitler via the press. Alia’s mother, Soni Razdan, was born to a German mother and an Indian father, and so, Alia’s maternal side of the family has roots in Germany.
In a chat with The Lallantop, Alia shared, “My maternal grandmother is from Germany. Obviously, we know the situation about what was happening in Germany then. Her father, my great-grandfather, was running an underground newspaper against Hitler.” Alia’s mother Soni Razdan had previously shared that her grandfather was imprisoned and put into a concentration camp at one point.
In an earlier interview with The Indian Express, Soni had shared, “My mother’s side of the family is from Germany. They lived in East Berlin, just before Hitler came to power. My grandfather, Karl Hoelzer, ran an underground newspaper against Hitler. He was not Jewish but he was against fascism. He was imprisoned and put into a concentration camp. The only reason he was not killed was because he had a very good lawyer. Finally, he was released but was asked to leave Germany. By then, World War II had started and he moved to England with his family.” Soni was born in Birmingham, UK, to German mother Gertrude Hoelzer and Kashmiri Pandit father N Razdan.
Previously, Alia’s father, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, had also spoken about Alia’s German roots, when her film Highway premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. Mahesh had shared on Twitter, “Many years ago, in 1929 in fact, Alia’s grandmother was born in Berlin. Yes, she’s German. Sadly she had to leave Berlin in 1937. Alia’s great grandfather was running an underground newspaper against Hitler. He was found out and imprisoned for two years. So Alia’s grandmother & her mother walked across the border to Czechoslovakia and found sanctuary from persecution as refugees in England.”
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