The Counterfeiters

The Counterfeiters is a moving story about a German plan to flood England with counterfeit currency during World War II.

The plot focuses on Salomon Sorowitsch (played by Karl Markovics), a German Jew who is captured by the Nazis and sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp. He is then transferred to the Sachsenhausen camp, where he was coerced to start making fake British currency to put the German plan into action. Sorowitsch, along with other counterfeiters, decides to try and sabotage the Nazi plans. The question then arises whether or not they can hold the Nazis off long enogh to be rescued.

The best part of this film was the portrayal of life in the concentration camps. Many films, in which the subject of the camps is touched upon, water down what life in the camps was really like. However, this film spares nothing when it comes to the horrors of life as a prisoner.

I think the film did a little too much to humanize the guards in the concentration camps. These people were monsters, and this film seems to show them as people who were all conflicted about their duty and still had a human side. They're all shown as lovers of art, who loved art more than preserving life.

I would recommend this film to anyone looking to learn more about the covert campaigns the Germans used to try to win World War II.