A group of German boys are ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the second world war. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge. The film is based on a West German anti-war novel of the same name, written by Gregor Dorfmeister.
Leah Weiss, a Polish Jew, was first forced into prostitution at Auschwitz. Afterwards, she was victimized in medical experiments. Now, twenty years later, German war crimes prosecutors hope she will be their star witness. But can she stand up to the shame, the publicity, and the reliving of those experiences?
March, 1945: The insecure and hesitant reserve lieutenant Felix Bleck receives orders to lead a transport of 40 prisoners to the Western Front, where the men are to be burned up in a punishment battalion. On the way there, Bleck realizes the inhuman futility of his assignment and makes a fateful decision.
