Aug 12, 2026 · 47 min · 11 segments
In this conversation, Dr. Rod Berger and Martin Plaut delve into Plaut's rich family history, with a particular focus on his father's experiences as a…
Martin PlautGuest
Rod BergerHost
Talk a little bit about the origins of your nuclear family as we start to understand a little bit how that shaped the person you are today.
It's complicated, but my father was an apprentice as a cabinetmaker in Dusseldorf in Germany.
He knew that people were being arrested, beaten up, and he just thought this is going one way.
My great aunt, I think she was, used to sell insurance from the back of an Volkswagen cart and then later sold secondhand clothing.
And then after the Second World War, came to London, met my mother who just bizarrely had been born in Cape Town on the way back from India.
And then they got married after knowing each other for just three occasions and came back to South Africa and lived there where they had myself and my brother and sister.
And I know that you worked with your father in his furniture store for about four years as a young man.
I know that this may be a bit of a stretch in this regard, right? But I shared this.
It's in my book I talk about, but having a father that was a part of or under the reign of Sadly, of Nazi Germany and the impacts that that can have on families.
I've talked with a lot of people about how, you know, as a youth, I wanted to know so much about my dad, but it was always such a mystery that I painted.
Talk a little bit about the origins of your nuclear family as we start to understand a little bit how that shaped the person you are today.
It's complicated, but my father was an apprentice as a cabinetmaker in Dusseldorf in Germany.
He knew that people were being arrested, beaten up, and he just thought this is going one way.
My great aunt, I think she was, used to sell insurance from the back of an Volkswagen cart and then later sold secondhand clothing.
And then after the Second World War, came to London, met my mother who just bizarrely had been born in Cape Town on the way back from India.
And then they got married after knowing each other for just three occasions and came back to South Africa and lived there where they had myself and my brother and sister.
And I know that you worked with your father in his furniture store for about four years as a young man.
I know that this may be a bit of a stretch in this regard, right? But I shared this.
It's in my book I talk about, but having a father that was a part of or under the reign of Sadly, of Nazi Germany and the impacts that that can have on families.
I've talked with a lot of people about how, you know, as a youth, I wanted to know so much about my dad, but it was always such a mystery that I painted.
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