Jon Mirsalis on Piano (Dü;rfen wir schweigen?). Until just after World War I, syphilis, along with alcoholism and TB, was both a social plight and a national cause. Films throughout Europe took up the struggle and bore witness to the anxiety of the public. Must We Be Silent? stars Conrad Veidt in the story of a syphilitic painter who marries and transmits the disease to his wife and daughter. Director Richard Oswald was a major director in Berlin in the twenties, famous for films which cleverly combined sexual enlightenment with criminal themes.