Czech Film Center

Synopsis

On September 5, 1942, a transport of 1,000 Czech Jews arrives to Estonia. A few dozen young women are separated off, while their families are taken to another, "heated" concentration camp. The bewildered girls soon form a tight-knit unit where mutual help is the rule and bonds stronger than friendship develop. Functioning almost as a single organism and sustained by youthful optimism, humor and naivety, they overcome unspeakable hardship on a fascinating odyssey through virtually unknown camps in Estonia and later in Germany, oblivious to the Holocaust raging round them. Pretty girls are taken away by Nazi officers, never to reappear. The few who choose to go their own way also vanish, as in the case of an astonishing and ultimately doomed Romeo and Juliet story of a camp commander and a beautiful Jewess. Yet, enclosed in an artificial, self-created protective bubble, the rest ignore the horror around them, always believing they will be reunited with their family and friends. Only on September 5, 1945, at a party while they are convalescing in Sweden, does a priest reveal the mystery of their families' disappearance...