Ben is an author, documentary filmmaker and critic. Half of his family arrived in the UK from the Pale of Settlement in Western Russia; the other half came from Berlin. He thinks his surname was given to his great grandfather when he arrived in the UK. Most Jewish immigrants had names that were far too complicated for nineteenth century border guards to spell or say. As a result, they became ‘Smiths’ or ‘Joneses’ at their point of entry. In spite of the Jewish community’s understandable ambivalence towards Germany, Ben decided aged twelve to learn German. As he puts it: ‘My Jewish grandmother said, “why do you want to learn German? I hate the Germans”, but she didn’t try to stop me, and my parents didn’t either, despite the fact that the Germans had killed many members of my family.’

‘Looking back on it, I realised I wanted to take possession of my heritage again. I went to work in Munich at the tender age of 17, and realised I was there to take back something that was mine and that Germany was not just the land of the Nazis. It was also the land of Goethe, Joseph Beuys and Max Beckmann. I wasn’t prepared to reduce Germany to a cipher. I wasn’t prepared to continue to let this part of my family’s history not be a part of my life. I was the only member of my family who felt this way.’