Two war veterans give their accounts of their experiences in WWII in two fascinating stories that couldn't be more different from each other. Itzhak Markus was a Lieutenant in the British Army. As a member of the occupying forces in Germany after the Allied victory he saw some terrible things – mountains of corpses being shovelled with bulldozers into pits in the ground. Today there are only memorial plaques to remind people of the many dead that lie under the mound at Bergen-Belsen, but for Itzhak Markus what he witnessed had a lasting impact. "Of course we knew that there were extermination camps… But to hear about it and to see it – that is the difference between heaven and hell."

As a counterpoint to Itzhak's story there is that of Martin Dörr who was a Lieutenant in the German Artillery. For him it was the sight of the Warsaw Ghetto that led his world to collapse. Was this the just war that he had signed up for? Shortly after arriving in Warsaw he was severely injured and taken to the USA in American custody. These are two arresting stories from two thrilling characters who bear witness to their disturbing experiences of war.

On the Czech border with Austria lies Bitov Castle. At the age of 8 Elsa Fischer moved into the castle where her father had been appointed caretaker and found herself spending her youth in the extraordinary location of Bitov. Elsa has many memories of this time, a time very different from today.

Baron Haas, the popular owner of the castle, had bought his noble title for 80,000 Florins from the Austrian Kaiser. Elsa remembers his dogs, cats, lions and birds and his love of pretty girls. After the Second World War, when Russian partisans demanded that he leaves his castle within a week, the Baron took his own life. Elsa Fischer along with many other Germans was subsequently expelled from Czechoslovakia. 

Elsa is now 94 years old but her memories have remained in Bitov. With a whimsical smile on her face she unearths lost histories. This is a film about the good old days.