The Auschwitz Report
ITH A number of Holocaust themed movies being released every other month, it’s no great surprise that one might have to carefully sift through those with crass sensationalist intentions in the hope of finding those with genuine motive. In the case of Peter Bebjak’s The Auschwitz Report, I’m glad to report that this is a film that sits firmly in the latter category.
Selected by Slovakia as its official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 85th Academy Awards, the film is inspired by Alfred
Wetzler’s book What Dante Did Not See and tells the real life story of a daring escape from the notorious concentration camp.
Set in April 1944, Alfred Wetzler (Noel Czuczor) and Valér Vrba (Peter Ondrejicka) two young Slovak Jews imprisoned in Auschwitz hide in a pit under a pile of wood and wait for an opportunity to escape. Making notes on the number of people in the transports and the details of the inhuman operation at the camp, the men compile a damning report which they must smuggle out to let the world know the full extent of the horrors taking place.
After three days of hiding, the duo embark on a daring escape, facing incredible hardship and near impossible odds, crossing the mountains to Slovakia, only to realise that a new ordeal is yet to come. They must now convince those unwilling to believe them that what they experienced was real.
Director Bebjak and his co-writers have made a fiercely engaging, tense and robustly acted drama which is never hampered by its small budget. They deliver a heartbreaking film which serves as a lasting testimony honouring the memory of those lost to Nazi atrocities.
While the graphic nature of the film makes it hard to watch, it’s fair to say that the harrowing images never feel gratuitous or added to pull at the heart strings. Furthermore, the film succeeds where others have failed by striking the right balance between drama and the need to tell one of the most important stories of the Holocaust.