Nackt unter Wölfen

Although the story of Communist Buchenwald prisoners saving a three-year old-child is based on a real person, Stefan Jerzy Lec, Holocaust researcher Annette Leo recreated the true story in her book and documentary "The Child on the List" (2018). Once the boy had been found, he was put on a list of 200 children to be deported to Auschwitz, his name being the last; one of the Kapos then replaced his name (and of eleven others) with the Sinto Willy Blum, who was then transported to (and murdered in) Auschwitz in his stead (with his brother). In the film, the boy is saved because his discovery coincides with the self-liberation of the camp. In reality, his rescue was a trade off. One can only guess that this was because of the age difference (Blum was 16), but it's also possible that Sinti were victimized deliberately since no one represented them. Until the 1990s the half million Romani killed by the Nazis were ignored in schools and films alike. The first film to mention this was the French-Romanian "Train of Life" (1998). More convincing early recreations of the Holocaust can be found in the Polish "Last Stage" (1948), the Czech "Distant Journey" (1949) and the Italian "Kapo" (1960).