William S. Heckscher
In 1932–1933, Heckscher lived in New York where he worked as Panofsky's assistant. During this time, he enrolled in the Graduate Department of Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University to study American art history. Heckscher returned to Germany to continue his studies in 1934. He and his mother were detained by the Gestapo and interrogated for ten days after being accused of having pacifist connections.
Helke Sander
When Sanders was 8 years old, she and her mother survived the firestorm bombing of Dresden during WWII. By the time she had graduated high school, she had been to 15 various schools around Germany. She received her Abitur in Remscheid in 1957 and went on to study acting at Ida Ehre School in Hamburg.
In 1959, she married Finnish writer Markku Lahtela in 1959, and had a son, Silvio Lahtela. After the birth of Silvio, Sanders and her family moved to Helsinki where she studied Germanistics and psychology at the University of Helsinki. Sanders also directed and performed in Ernst Toller's play "Der deutsche Hinkemann and Grass' "Noch zehn Minuten bis Buffalo." On the side, she also taught classes on drama and improvisation. From 1966 to 1969, she studied at the newly founded film school 'Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie'. Sanders' work in cinema is very closely linked to her political engagement as a feminist.