Remembrance in the GDR

Invoking the revolutionary heritage of the German Peasants’ Wars of the 16th century, the SED reshapes society with the support of the Soviet Union.

Conveyed by innovative music and original sound bites, a disturbing dialogue between a memorial to National Socialist crimes and its viewers evolves.

A narrator explains surviving evidence of the events on the grounds of the Langenstein-Zwieberge subcamp. The film ends with a formulaic ritual of remembrance.

A restrained and thoughtful look at the “Below Forest Death March” which leaves room for nuances: Concentration camp inmates leave carvings on the trees. The testimonies “grow over”.

At the district level, the SED’s legitimization and claim to moral leadership are brought into a line of tradition with the illegal KPD resistance in the Weimar Republic.