Drama, 85 min, director: Robert Thalheim, 2007
German with English subtitles
Sven, a nineteen-year-old German, is assigned to do his ‘Zivildienst’ in Oświęcim - which is the Polish name for the town of Auschwitz. One of Sven’s main duties is to care for an elderly camp survivor, Stanisław Krzemiński, who never left the camp and now spends his time either giving eyewitness accounts or repairing old suitcases.
On his arrival in Oświęcim, he is not only confronted with a new language and the German and Polish history but also with the tourism that surrounds it all. He knows little about the Holocaust and it is when he falls in love with Ania, who works as a guide for German visitors in Auschwitz-Birkenau, that he finally begins to discover and understand both Auschwitz and Oświęcim.
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