BERNSTEINLAND - EIN TODESMARSCH IN OSTPREUSSEN

Years of unbearable cold, hunger, hard labour, bloodshed and death lay behind them. But the suffering of the survivors from Nazi death and labour camps was not over as the Red Army approached East Prussia and Koenigsberg (later Kaliningrad). The concentration camps were evacuated and the SS led the haggard Jews, mostly young women, in a death march to the amber coast. Near Palmnicken/Jantarny they brutally murdered around 7,000 out on the ice. Only very few survived or were able to flee. Maria Blitz escaped the massacre and is probably now the last remaining participant of the death march. In her graduation film from the Munich Film School, Julia Bourgett interweaves Maria Blitz’ memories of the horror she lived through and the reports of other eye witnesses with impressive visuals of life, landscape and nature on the amber coast in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. This is a thoroughly researched account of the details of the almost forgotten tragedy of Palmnicken.

Nominated for the Talent Award of the Bavarian Film and Television Fund, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern