Synopsis
In the beginning was a broken taboo: the boy Knut asked his 'aunt Gerda' from Amerika who was on a visit to the GDR what had become of her childthat nobody ever dared to mention. Horrified silence around the coffeetable. Knut felt confused and ashamed - he would never forget this sunday afternoon. 30 years later, Knut Elstermann sees Gerda in New York and asksthe same question again. She tells him about close family ties and friendshipsof the pre-war era, about Jewish friends and aquaintances' survival, but also about deportation and death. It is the story of a search for truth in files,in testimonies of contemporary witnesses and her memory.Filmmaker Britta Wauer followed up Gerda's story. Based on Gerda's encounterwith Knut, his persistent questions which finally got an answer, shecreates, with great respect and unmistakable affection for her protagonist, the portrait of a woman who with a defiant courage to face life built a new life for herself afterAuschwitz. The starting point of this new life was her silence about the end of the old one - a silencewhich Gerda never broke, even with her son Steven, until her conversations with Knut Elstermann.www.gerdas-schweigen.de
