"Motivated by the idea to finally embark on a conversation about this most gruesome chapter of German history, Helwig has portrayed forty-five people. They are people like you and I, people well-known and ordinary, born in Germany and the Nazi-occupied territories between 1935 and 1942. Everyone portrayed had the courage to face the camera and tell his or her story, to literally show him- or herself as Kriegskind. Their narratives are predominantly anecdotal, with different levels of reflection. Traumas or transgenerational effects are rarely talked about mirroring the silence that is common till today. The reader and viewer is therefore asked to read between the lines, to look the protagonists in the eye. Perhaps it encourages us to reflect on our own family history and identity, and to start a dialogue with our parents and grandparents. The point is to talk to one another, to recognize and make known the destructive consequences of fascist systems, racism, hate and war in order to work against them; the point is not to accuse or denounce."
Alexandra Senfft, extract from Kriegskinder foreword