 Britta Wauer’s Gerda’s Silence is a thoughtful portrait of a tenacious woman who grew up in Nazi Germany and survived the Holocaust. In the film, popular German radio journalist Knut Elstermann speaks with his ‘aunt’ Gerda, a former neighbour and friend of the family who’s now living in New York. After sixty years of total silence on the subject, Gerda Schrage decides to talk about her wartime experiences and one of her revelations is that she gave birth to a child while in Auschwitz.
This delicate, beautifully structured film is never exploitative or manipulative. Director Wauer shows Gerda’s pain and loss, but also celebrates the strength and courage of this remarkable woman. It’s a dignified portrait of an extraordinary life. 
90 minutes,
Germany, 2008,
Subtitled, Colour, Digibeta
Director: Britta Wauer
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