breaking the silence
Gedenkinitiative für NS-„Euthanasie”-Opfer
Films & discussions
Since 2015, the Memorial Initiative for Victims of Nazi ‘Euthanasia’ has been committed to fostering a living culture of remembrance for the victims of the killings of the sick. It continues the work of the Working Group on Psychiatry and Social Welfare under National Socialism
in Munich, which in 2018 published the memorial book for the Munich victims of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ murders on behalf of the Nazi Documentation Centre and the District of Upper Bavaria.
The memorial initiative aims to support affected families and raise public awareness of an often-forgotten group of victims.
What drives us? For many, it is a sense of personal connection: some because there was a victim in their family, others because they ask themselves: Would I also have been murdered back then? And others ask themselves: How would I have acted back then if I had been in charge? But it is not only personal connection that drives our commitment. Germany’s culture of remembrance thrives on those who wanted to understand history, learn from it, and pass it on.
In collaboration with the Gedenkinitiative, UNDERDOX invites you to an afternoon of films and discussions with the relatives of victims of Nazi ‘euthanasia’. Our thanks go to Sibylle von Tiedemann of the Gedenkinitiative.
program:
Breaking the Silence
Around 300,000 people fell victim to the ‘euthanasia’ murders during the Nazi era. One in eight Germans has a relative who was murdered amongst their ancestors. Yet they rarely feature in our culture of remembrance and commemoration.
At the same time, these crimes continue to influence our society to this day in the debate on inclusion and how we treat people with disabilities and marginalised groups. The killings of the sick have left a legacy of trauma in the families in which their fate was kept secret.
Many descendants are setting out to search for clues. They are breaking the silence and telling the stories of their murdered relatives, naming them publicly. ‘Breaking the Silence’ traces the Nazi system of killings of the sick and gives a voice to the relatives who have set out in search of the truth.
Film discussion with the victims’ families:
Welcome: Gedenkinitiative (Sibylle von Tiedemann)
Film talk with: Barbara Baum, Margarete Flygt and Josef Held
Robert Domes
DE 2025
37 min | German | K+S+E: Lorenz Kloska, bfs
Eigentlich wollte ich nicht so lange bleiben (Actually, I Didn´t Want to Stay Long)
In the late 1970s, Andreas Grützner moved from his village to Hamburg. As a 17-year-old, he found a job at the Alsterdorfer Institutes. The place and the violent treatment of the
people with disabilities housed there proved too much for him, but he stayed and witnessed a social transformation. The belated revelation of a family trauma sets in motion a process of reflection on that period.
How has the way people are treated in hospitals and care homes changed from the 1970s to the present day? Who are the people who live in such a facility, and what is the experience of a
young man who starts working there in the 1970s? Confronted with a traumatic discovery in his family history, he begins to reflect. – Andreas Grützner
Andreas Grützner
DE 2025
German Film Critics’ Award
23 min | German
Andreas Grützner
Born in 1962, a social education worker, artist and cultural practitioner with many years’ experience in inclusive projects, film production and festival organisation.
Films
Romy, ich bin krank 2013 | Christ/el 2016 | Land der Gegenden 2019 Eigentlich wollte ich nicht so lange bleiben 2025
B+P: Andreas Grützner | With Helga Kreutz, Walter Uehr, Anita Grönig, Olaf Wohlert, Günter Auerswald