Post-screening dialogue with director Brent Watkins and documentary subject John Gualtier.
Army combat medic Sgt. John Gualtier provides a rare firsthand account of the invasion of Germany, ending in the liberation of the Gunskirchen Lager concentration camp in Austria. As a consequence of his experience, John spends a lifetime second guessing his life-or-death decisions as a medic. Long before PTSD was known or understood, he was in and out of psychiatric hospitals and survived multiple suicide attempts.
Czech native Martin Weiss experienced the war from a very different perspective. When he was 16, he and his family were turned over to the Nazis and shipped to Auschwitz concentration camp. While most of his family perished, Martin managed to survive not just Auschwitz, but a transfer to the "camp of no return" - Mauthausen. Finally, he makes a forced death-march to Gunskirchen Lager concentration camp - the same camp liberated by Sgt. Gualtier.
Though the two never meet, their lives intersect at a pivotal time in history. Both recount how the power of story helps heal wounds from their past.