Sven comes to Auschwitz to do alternative civilian work instead of military service. He applied for a job at a youth centre in Amsterdam but is sent to serve at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. His job is to look after a former concentration camp prisoner, who is far from accepting his help with gratitude. Stanisław Krzemiński repairs suitcases which are exhibited in the museum and treats this job as a lifelong responsibility. Sven is his driver and accompanies him at numerous meetings where Krzemiński is invited as a witness who survived the extermination. It is not a nice stay for Sven. When Ania, a Polish interpreter who he fell in love with, leaves for a scholarship to Brussels, he also decides to come back home.