Return - The history of the Minsk ghetto

The birch forests around Minsk are lovely, but the story being shot there for Russian cinema by director Alexander Franskevich-Laje is less idyllic.

Nadine Heidenreich plays Frau Neumann (pictured here with Jörg Westphal), the head of the German military hospital in Minsk, and she is very convinced of what she has to decide and take responsibility for on behalf of the German Reich. Which of the Russian children were allowed to donate blood for the wounded German soldiers and which were not. Jewish children's blood was not what she considered valuable enough, the children of Jewish descent were sent to the Minsk ghetto.

In terms of the number of victims of the Holocaust, Belarus is second only to Ukraine in Europe. The story of the Minsk ghetto is a story of suffering and unprecedented courage not only of the Jewish people, but also of thousands of citizens of the Soviet Union - civilians from Minsk, Bobruisk, Gomel, other cities and villages of Belarus, who at their own risk, often at the cost of their own lives, saved their fellow citizens of Jewish origin - women, old people, children - from the ruthless occupiers.

The movie tells of the fate of two boys - twins of Jewish origin who flee from the Minsk ghetto created by the Nazis. The war not only tore them away from their parents, but also from each other, scattering them to different front lines. And it is only after many decades that they manage to find and see each other again.

Director: Alexander Franskevich-Laje
Production: Atlant Media Group
Casting: Valentina Popkova