The father’s trace
1989
75 minutes

An EIKON Film production in cooperation with absolut Medien GmbH. 75 min.
Premieres in the beginning of 1989. Airs among other things while the exhibition „Verbrechen der Wehrmacht – Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941-1944“ („Crimes of the Wehrmacht – dimensions of the war of extermination 1941-1944“) runs in 2001/ 2002.

Christoph Boekel follows the way of his father, Walter Boekel, from the Ukraine to just before Moscow on the basis of pictures and war diaries that he, as a German soldier, sent or brought home from the campaign in Russia.
After 45 years the son makes enquiries into an “war that hasn’t ended”. He visits villages and cities through which his father marched, locations where he was cold and starved. He talks to survivors to hear their stories about the war. Interviews with very aged soviet villagers that were made in tears are compared with diary passages that reflect the despair of the young man who became a soldier and also the arrogance of the alleged Nazi hero.