German diplomat, Walter Kretschmer, and his wife, Anna Liese Franz, are aboard a cruise liner headed to Brazil when Liese is forced to face her past; Liese is suddenly panic-stricken when she sees a passenger who resembles a former prisoner of Auschwitz where, unbeknownst to her husband, Liese served as an S.S. officer. Flashing back to Auschwitz, we watch Liese and Martha (the passenger) develop a turbulent and tense relationship in the camp. Liese, while looking back, is conflicted between her humanity and her steadfast view that she was simply serving the S.S proudly. Martha and the other women in the camp develop strong bonds of friendship, shaping Martha and leading her to remark at the end of the opera: “If one day your voices should fall silent, then we are all extinguished.”
Passazhirka guide sections
