1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

People: DiCaprio, Hanks, Spielberg Dazzle Berlin

January 28, 2003
https://p.dw.com/p/3DB1

A trio of top American actors made a stopover in Berlin over the weekend to premiere their new film and unveil a Holocaust visual history project. Twenty-eight-year-old "Titanic" start Leonardo DiCaprio visited the German capital to promote his latest film, "Catch Me if You Can," accompanied by director Steven Spielberg and co-star Tom Hanks. "This is a film tailor-made for the new Europe," actor Hanks told the crowd at the premiere. Hanks' comments referred to a derogatory remark made by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who called Germany part of the "old Europe."

In Berlin, Spielberg also appeared with German Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn on Sunday to open up a competition to help school children overcome prejudice. The project is being run by Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The competition's goal is to get young people to confront intolerance towards other cultures and religions. Children can enter by producing a report, a video or an Internet project on the topic. Spielberg said he believed recorded memories of Holocaust survivors could be used to overcome racism and bigotry.

Eight years ago, the Academy Award winning director founded the Shoah Foundation, investing $60 million to record the experiences of Holocaust survivors all over the world.