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Friday, 14. November 2025 – 17:00
Campus für Demokratie, Haus 7

Lost Time. Against the Silence. Childhood in a children's home, Youth in Prison.

On-site
Filmscreening

In the film "Lost Time – Against the Silence," four people search for traces of their past. In the Schmiedefeld transit home, the "Neues Leben" youth correctional facility in Wolfersdorf, and the Hohenleuben women's prison, they were at the mercy of the SED regime because they were considered "difficult to educate" or wanted to go to the West.

The contemporary witnesses speak about experiences of violence, isolation, and forced labor in the GDR's repressive residential care facilities and in the penal system, as well as the reasons for their placement or arrest. Young people who did not want or could not fit into the GDR's normative system were to be trained to become "socialist personalities" through coercive measures. Such facilities also existed in Thuringia.

Regarding the film's title, director Torsten Eckold says:
"The time spent in the children's homes, the youth correctional facility, and the imprisonment in prison was a lost time that robbed those affected of their childhood and youth. With this film, we attempt to capture this time and fight against the silence, perhaps even against social silence."

The documentary was produced in collaboration with the DENKOrte project of the Thuringian Archive for Contemporary History "Matthias Domaschk." Project coordinator and editor Stefanie Falkenberg explains the motivation:
"A recent study by the University of Leipzig revealed that the longing for the GDR remains astonishingly strong. Our film vividly and tangibly illuminates a different reality of the GDR, one that certainly no one wanted back for themselves or their families."

The historian advocates for greater attention to contemporary witnesses when dealing with SED injustice.

Filmmaker Torsten Eckold reports that the greatest challenge in implementing the film was gaining the witnesses' trust to appear on camera and recount their experiences.

Experts contributing to the 90-minute documentary include political scientist Christian Sachse and Manfred May, who has served as a contact point for former children in care homes in Thuringia for decades and publishes his own book series on the subject.

“Lost Time – Against the Silence” was created with funding from the film funding of the Free State of Thuringia, the Thuringian State Chancellery, private donations as part of a crowdfunding campaign by the Jena municipal utilities, and with the support of the Jena History Workshop and the Thuringian State Center for Political Education.