Und alle haben geschwiegen (2012)

2008: Luisa has returned to Germany from the United States to finally speak, after decades of repression, about her time in a children’s home run by the Protestant Church. She and Paul have been invited to tell the Bundestag’s Round Table what they had to endure there. For both of them, it is also a reunion after a long time, since they had lost contact after their brief romance. 1964: When her single mother falls seriously ill, sixteen-year-old Luisa is sent to the children’s home. There, all the children and teenagers are addressed only by numbers; Luisa becomes No. 84. Like everyone else there, she is beaten, humiliated, and bullied. Paul, who is the same age, catches her attention when, on his first day after arriving, he is asked to recite the Lord’s Prayer. The pastor stands beside him, ready to punish every mistake or slip of the tongue with blows to his hands. Paul stutters. All the residents have to do hard labor: the girls work in the laundry, the garden, the kitchen, or cleaning, while the boys work in the workshops. The sisters constantly supervise and reprimand them. When the head of the home, Sister Elisabeth, comes to the laundry room to welcome Luisa, the girl dares to ask a question: when will she be allowed to go back to school? Her teacher thinks she could pass her Abitur. The sister’s answer destroys all her hopes. The girls are meant to find a husband, care for him and their children, and run the household. They have no need for an Abitur for that. A short time later, Jana Michels, a graduate in educational science, comes to the home to write a paper on the development of diaconal youth homes in Germany as part of a research project on cooperation between youth welfare offices and churches, and to make suggestions for improvements. After protracted discussions with the home’s management, she succeeds in getting the teenagers one hour to themselves after the bishop’s visit, without supervision. Paul and Luisa take the opportunity to escape. They break into a farmhouse, get some new clothes, and eat something. They manage to get away from the farmer when he returns by using a moped, but the police soon catch up with them and take them back to the home. Given their experiences there, they are sure they will be brutally punished. Luisa jumps out of a window but survives and is taken to hospital. She is lucky, and thanks to Jana’s efforts, she does not have to return to the home. Paul, on the other hand, is sent to a penal camp, where he has to work hard for two years, until he is no longer “of use” and is sent back to the children’s home.