The Swedish Silence

Synopsis

On a night train in the midst of World War II, a German SS officer, Kurt Gerstein, secretly passes on one of the very first testimony of the Holocaust to a Swedish diplomat, Göran von Otter. This encounter came to haunt von Otter throughout his entire life. Now his daughter, Birgitta, tries to find out what happened with the information. She searches for the truth and an understanding and forgiveness of her father. Finally, she visits the German SS-officer’s daughter Adelheid von Platen. The two women are connected by this haphazardly encounter between their fathers. A brief encounter that still, over seventy years later, continues to have impact and echoes in their lives. A story about shame and personal responsibility. A film about Sweden and the guilt from the Second World War.