How do women in Austria and Germany deal with their family’s Nazi past? Up until now, mostly descendants of victims and survivors have looked at the after-effects of National Socialism and the Holocaust. Now, the descendants of the perpetrators, too, begin to examine the traces of this past in their lives. They look at their family’s Nazi histories and investigate how this ’negative heritage‘, as Jean Amery has termed it, influences their thoughts and actions as well as their approaches to love and relationships.
In the film, the protagonists are shown in public spaces. Architecture from the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s in Vienna are the locations for the film. They stand for the way National Socialism was dealt with in Austria and reflect the political currents during those eras. The places chosen not only make reference to historical contexts, they are also significant to the protagonists‘ personal lives. The impacts of their families and society on their lives are tied into the film’s visual concept.
The after effects of National Socialism for the perpetrators‘ descendants have only rarely been the subject of a film. There is little works about the ways that women deal with their charged family history. In contrast, a considerable amount of interest has been expressed internationally, for example, there are audiences in England, Israel and the USA that are eager to discover how descendants of the perpetrators are contending with their past. Love History aims to fill this void.
