The film is a documentary one, told from the perspective of a woman named Kitty who was sent to Auschwitz when she was 17-years old. Years later, she decided to return to the camp and tell her story, accompanied by two girls who were the same age as she was when she was first taken there. The purpose of the film is a clear one: to make sure this part of history is never forgotten and to make sure the new generation will never let something so atrocious ever take place again.
Kitty starts by telling how she ended up in Auschwitz. She and her parents lived in Poland and when Germany invaded the country, her family was sent to a ghetto in Lublin. Later, with the help of a priest, she and her mother managed to flee to Germany where they hoped to find work until the end of the war and live in hiding. There are two interesting aspects of this part of the story. First, the father had to stay behind, the priest knowing that the family had little chances of surviving if they were to stay together. Second, even though the situation was dire, there were still people who were willing to put their own lives in danger to save the persecuted Jews.
Kitty and her mother were sent to Auschwitz after someone reported them as being Jews. The two women were accused of gaining entry into the country by using illegal documents and were sentenced to death. In the last moment however, their sentence was changed to slave-labor in the camp.
The next description is regarded with the events taking place on the first night Kitty spent in the camp. She and her mother were placed in a quarantine barack and they slept next to a Gipsy woman. During the night, the woman died and Kitty and her mother took the woman's clothes and everything she had.
From this point on, the main character makes it clear that for the people living in the camp, survival was everything. Their main concern was to make sure they were still useful to the camp and that they will be not selected to be sent to the gas chambers. They also needed to make sure they had shoes and enough food to have energy to work. Kitty points out that everyone in the camp was like an animal, interested only in their own survival and fate.
The horrific bunks where the prisoners slept are also described in vivid detail. The latrines are also described as Kitty describes her work there. What is interesting to see is how for her, during those times, working in the latrines was the safest place to be and one of the jobs which assured her survival.
Through these descriptions, the message is clear: the prisoners had to be dehumanized, to be seen as less than animals and less than human, to strip away their identity and also their hope.
Kitty and her mother survived and were eventually liberated towards the end of the war. Still, she lost many of her friends and family members and talking about her experiences remains a difficult thing to do. But, as she points out at the end, these conversations need to happen to make sure that such a horrific event never happens again.
