I saw "The Counterfeiters" ("Die Falscher" auf Deutsch - with an umlaut over the "a" that blogger will not let me provide) on Friday night. The NYT review, which captures the spirit of the movie well, is here.
The movie is based on a real-life operation that produced counterfeit British pounds (and a few dollars and some other documents) using skilled concentration camp labor. The workers received perks and survival in exchange for their assistance.
One of the workers, Adolf Burger, wrote a book about it called "The Devil's Workshop" that I have not been able to find yet on Amazon or on Abebooks. If anyone knows where to find it I would be happy to hear about it. In the movie, and presumably in real life, Burger was a communist in the interwar years whose idealism and desire to make a martyr of himself and his co-workers is contrasted with the focus on personal survival of the other workers. I thought the movie was a bit kinder than it should have been to his sensibilities given that communism generated its own large scale mass murders elsewhere; in essense an opportunity for adding greater irony and greater depth to the movie was passed up.
Nonetheless, it is an excellent film and well worth the time spent viewing it. I found that it has lingered in my mind over the weekend and generated worthwhile reflections.
Who was my favorite student this term?
7 years ago
