Five Last Days

In Wittelbacherpalais, Munich's prison and Gestapo center, middle-aged Else Gebel awaits trial for carrying anti-Nazi material. She serves as a clerk in the Gestapo office. On Thursday, 18 February 1943, two youths arrive at the prison, arrested for carrying anti-Reich pamphlets and suspected of dropping leaflets from the university tower and painting anti-Hitler signs along Ludwigstraße: Sophie, 21, and her brother Hans, 24 and back from the Russian front. Sophie is housed with Else, and for five days, as Sophie is interrogated and charges brought, the women form a bond based on simple interactions: poetry, tea, shared clothing, courage, love of freedom, and a promise Else gives Sophie.