The Auschwitz Report

Great! Great! Great movie! I am passionate about German history, from Charlemagne to Merkel. But mainly I am passionate about the German 20th century including the study of the Holocaust, I have studied the subject for many years, I had not come across a film that described Auschwitz-Birkenau so well after having seen "The Son of Saul" another extraordinary film in this case from Hungary. Every detail of The Auschwitz Report is exciting and is an accurate story if you compare it with the 1985 testimonies of the documentary film Shoah by maestro Claude Lanzmann. What impressed me the most about this film was the light, an almost perfect art direction that makes you feel in the place without having to resort to computer effects. It is a 10/10 movie although it could add more points.

This true story is a must see for anyone interested in WW2 history. The writers put a lot of effort to make the story correct. Even when it would result in the movie coming dull at some times. Especially the last 30 minutes of the movie were slowgoing. The part of the movie that covered what happened in the camp was however more than sufficient to still give this movie a 7-star rating.

I wish there were more of these movies that show the horrors that took place during WW2. Especially in the current-day climate of increasing tensions between the "west" and "east", people should know how horrible wars can be.

Why make a fictionalized story when there is a real one begging to be told? Why not honor a real-life hero Witold Pilecki - a Polish military officer who volunteered to be captured and sent to Auchwitz, literally to infiltrate the camp! While there, he established an underground network (with codenames and everything) that helped many prisoners survive, sent out reports from inside, and then orchestrated a daring escape for himself and a few others. After the war, sadly, he was murdered by the communists. This is a real story that surpasses anything fiction could create! Why Pilecki's story hasn't yet been turned into a Hollywood blockbuster is beyond me. Why he is not widely known and recognized, I also cannot understand. I highly recommend reading the Pilecki's book Report from Auschwitz, you can find it online for free.

I have valued the film for the story it tells and not for things like photography, or the use of the camera, the actors who should be much thinner etc. As they say - "The only thing that is needed for the evil to triumph is for the good to do nothing." The speeches that are heard at the end of the film are supposed to be dated 1942-1946 or around that time, but I still hear many people say the same things today, which makes me think that the word " humanity "should be reassessed and questioned, since apparently we have not evolved much in the last 80 years.

Great story and sadly it actually happened.

With an important story to tell and a strong cast "The Auschwitz Report" had the basis for a very good film. However, the many well-crafted scenes in the film never seem to gel as a coherent whole. The main flaws in the film are holes in sections of the script and awkward editing. The build up of tension in the plot seems to go nowhere, leading to a rushed and anti-climatic conclusion. Better films of this genre are "Schindler's List" and "The Counterfeiters".