Stateless, Arrogant and Lunatic

Synopsis

“Stateless, arrogant and lunatic” was what British authorities called Gilel Storch, when in 1945 he was preparing to go to Berlin and negotiate with Heinrich Himmler about saving Jews. Storch, himself a Jew, had been personally invited by Reichsführer Himmler. The resulting meeting is one of the most bizarre – and most unknown – episodes of the Second World War. 

Stateless, Arrogant and Lunatic is the fascinating and dramatic story of one man’s persistent struggle – and eventual success – in trying to save Jews during the war. Among Storch’s many collaborators was Himmler’s personal masseur, Felix Kersten. The film is made as a drama-documentary, i.e. a mixture of archival footage, interviews and dramatizations. Of the total 100-minute film, 40 minutes is dramatizations, the rest is archive and interviews. 

About the Director

Lena Einhorn is a writer and filmmaker, with a background in medicine. She has portrayed Greta Garbo’s life before the breakthrough, in the novel Blekinge Street 32, and in Nina’s Journey, she told the story of her mother, one of the last to leave the Warsaw ghetto alive. Nina’s Journey also became a feature film, written and directed by Einhorn. The book received the National Book Award of Sweden, and the film received the National Film Award, for best picture and best script, as well as a number of international awards.  

The drama-documentary “Stateless, Arrogant and Lunatic” (1998), also depicts a pivotal episode during the second world war, when Jewish activists negotiated with Heinrich Himmler, in order to free Jews from the camps. This story also became the basis for Einhorn’s first non-fiction book. 

In the autumn of 2018, the historical novel The Genius from Breslau, on Nobel Pize winner and accused war criminal Fritz Haber, was published, and in 2019 the critically acclaimed autobiographical novel The Thin Ice came out. Einhorn has also explored the historical background of the biblical stories, in three books – as well as in academic fora. While What Happened on the Road to Damascus? [The Jesus Mystery] (2006) and A Shift in Time (2016) examined the parallels between the New Testament and the contemporaneous historical chronicles, her new book, What happened on the way to Jerusalem? (2020) attempts to decipher the historical origins of the Bible’s depiction of the early Israelites and the Exodus from Egypt. In January 2022, Lena, who is an MD, with a PhD in virology and Tumor Biology, published her book about the Swedish COVID-19 pandemic, Among Hobby Epidemiologists and Expert Authorities. A Look at the Swedish Pandemic. On January 12, 2023 her novel A Crate of Oranges, based on the dramatic childhood of Jewish journalist Jackie Jakubowski, was published. 

On February 22, 2024, her documentary tale Chameleon, about Vladimir Putin’s path to power, is published in Sweden. 

Festivals, Screenings, & Awards

• 12th Toronto Jewish Film Festival (2004)
• Winner, Prix Europa Television Programme – 1999
• Non-Fiction Film of the Year Winner, The Swedish Academy of Verbovisual Information – 1998
• Semi-Finalist, The 1998 International Emmy