Auschwitz wasn´t what Sven, a young German, had in mind when he signed up to do his civil service abroad. For him, Auschwitz is a small town in Poland, a strange language, a concentration camp, all the musty grayness of high-school German history classes.

 

To make matters worse, he´s got to care for an unpleasant old man, Stanis³aw Krzemiסski, a former inmate who never left the camp and now spends his time either giving contemporary-witness lectures or repairing suitcases.

Krzemiסski´s world revolves around the suitcases taken from the Jews as they arrived at the concentration camp from all over Europe. Besides having to endure Krzemiסski´s haughty, gruff manner, Sven also has to put up with the barely concealed contempt of various locals. Luckily, there´s Ania, a young guide who lets Sven stay at her place...

As the weeks go by, Sven begins to discover both Auschwitz and Oœwiךcim, the place of horror and the Polish town, the memorial to inhumanity and the tourist industry that has sprung up around it. Yet within this push and pull of conflicting sensations grow love for Ania, compassion for Krzemiסski, and the troubling, challenging realization about his own role in preserving the memory of this place...