The young German Sven begins his alternative military service in Oświęcim in Poland – a place which is too closely associated with that wretched period in German history, and where Germans are disliked to this day. For Sven, like his contemporaries who visit the town’s museum, the war and the concentration camps are a thing of the distant past, but for former inmate Stanisław Krzemiński, who survived Auschwitz, it’s a wound that won’t heal. Thus it proves extremely difficult for the two to find a common language, or even to start looking for one… Coming to terms with the past is a theme which not only European filmmakers feel the need to address, but also the upcoming generation of German directors. This intimate story doesn’t follow the line of such films as Europa, Europa by Agnieszka Holland, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, or Fateless by Lajos Koltai. Instead it offers a contemporary, personal testimony of what remains of suffering endured over half a century ago, and examines whether we are capable of understanding it and learning from it.