The
Counterfeiters is the English title of a German-Austrian movie from 2007 that
is inspired by a true story: Nazi-Germany’s secret plan to wage economic war
against the UK and the US by producing a large amount of counterfeit money.
The German title is Die Fälscher. Here is some basic information about it:
** Written and
directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
** Inspired by Adolf Burger’s book The Commando of Counterfeiters (1983), published in English as The Devil’s Workshop (2009)
** Inspired by Adolf Burger’s book The Commando of Counterfeiters (1983), published in English as The Devil’s Workshop (2009)
** Released on DVD
in 2008
** German soundtrack - English subtitles
** Run time: 98 minutes
** Run time: 98 minutes
The cast includes
the following:
** Karl Markovics
as Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch
** August Diehl as
Adolf Burger
** Veit Stubner as
Atze
** Andreas Schmidt
as Zilinski
** Sebastian
Urzendowsky as Kolya
** Devid Striesow
as German officer Herzog
** Martin Brambach
as German officer Holst
** August Zirner
as German doctor Klinger
** Hille Beseler
as Grete Herzog – wife of Herzog
** Dolores Chaplin
as the lady in the Casino
During World War
Two, the German government wanted to wage economic war against the UK and the
US by producing a large amount of counterfeit money: British pounds and US
dollars. To produce the counterfeit money they assembled a team of inmates from
different concentration camps, including some from Auschwitz.
The prisoners
were put to work in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. They were given modern
equipment and tools to produce the false money. In order to motivate them, they
were given unusual privileges, such as real beds with white sheets and decent food.
They were kept in a separate block of the camp. The other inmates did not know
anything about them.
The German plan known
as Operation Bernhard was to produce the false money and release it into the
world economy. This would create inflation and thus undermine the economies of
the UK and the US.
The first part of
the plan was implemented. The inmates produced a lot of British pounds and some
US dollars. This was in 1944 and 1945. But in 1945 the war was coming to an end
and therefore the German government never had the chance to implement the
second part of the plan: to release the false money into the world economy.
While this movie
is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film; it is a dramatized
version of events. Not everything happened as portrayed in the movie. Writer/director
Ruzowitzky was inspired to write the screenplay and to make the movie by the memoirs
written by one of the former inmates, Adolf Burger.
If you look at the
list of characters above, you will see that Burger is one the characters in the
movie. The real Burger, who was born in 1917, is still alive. He was used as a
consultant on the movie.
The other
characters on the list above are fictional characters. Sometimes a character is
based on a real person, in other cases a character is a composite of several
real persons.
The character Salomon
Sorowitsch is based on a real person called Salomon Smolianoff (1899-1976). The
German SS officer Herzog is based on a real person called Bernhard Krüger
(1904-1989). Operation Bernhard was named after him. Goggle these names to get
more information about the case.
In the movie, the
two leading characters are Salomon Sorowitsch and Adolf Burger, who represent
two different types. The former is prepared to do anything to survive. You must
think of yourself, he says. Nobody else will do it for you. The latter does not
agree. He points out that the team is actually helping the German war machine.
He does not want to do this. Therefore he tries to sabotage the work by slowing
down the production of the false money.
Solomon is upset.
He says: you can be a martyr, if you want, but I do not want to be a martyr, I
just want to survive. When you sabotage the production, the Germans will find
out about it and they will kill us all. Your action forces us all to be
martyrs. This is not right. Can’t you see that?
Salomon has a
dilemma now. Does he tell the Germans what he knows? He does not want to do
that because has a rule which says you never betray a comrade. There must be
honour among thieves. On the other hand, if he does not tell the Germans, the
result may be that the Germans will kill them all when they discover that the
operation is being sabotaged. How does he solve the dilemma? I am not going to
tell you.
While the movie is
based on a true story, there is one obvious case where historical accuracy is
violated. In the beginning of the movie, we see Salomon with a lady in the
Monte Carlo Casino. Later they go to his room in the hotel. When they undress
and lie on the bed, the lady notices a number tattooed on his arm: she is
shocked. The tattoo is a sign that he was in a German concentration camp.
However, only inmates of Auschwitz were marked with a tattoo, and Salomon was
never in this camp. Why did the director/writer make a mistake like this?
The history of
World War Two has been told in many books and in many movies. But this movie
has a new and interesting angle on the case. I like it, even though some
details are a product of the director’s vivid imagination. What do other
reviewers say about it?
On IMDb it has a
rating of 76 per cent; on Metacritic it has a rating of 78 per cent. Both ratings
correspond to four stars on Amazon. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a rating of 94 per
cent, which corresponds to five stars on Amazon. The movie was nominated for
several international awards. The most significant was the Oscar, which it won
in the category called the Best Foreign Language Film of 2008.
If you ask me, the
positive reviews and the prestigious award are fully justified. The
Counterfeiters is a captivating movie. The script is well-written and the
actors play their roles well. Therefore I think it deserves a rating of five
stars.
PS # 1. For more
information, see the following book: Krueger’s Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit
Plot and the Prisoners in Block 19 by Lawrence Malkin (2006, 2008).
PS # 2. The
following article is available online: John Kalish, “The Counterfeit Saga(s):
What really happened at Sachsenhausen?” Forward, 25 June 2008.
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment