The Auschwitz Report

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".

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 was a painful film to watch. Most of the film focuses on the men in the camp and the two men trying to get out to contact the Resistance. They don't get to write the report or talk to anyone about what happened until the last 20 minutes of the film. The agony they suffer just to get to that point is excruciating.

And then it's a different kind of suffering to see that they are not believed because the enormity of the crime seemed incredible. The men must have felt so frustrated that they had risked everything to tell the truth and other men at the camp died helping them yet the outcome they wanted did not occur.

This film is about man's inhumanity to man. They did get some kindness on their journey otherwise they would not have survived so they had to be thankful for that.... But the larger tragedy is overwhelming...

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.

Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba were heros. And this movie shows their struggles in very great way. Historical very accurate. After long time historical must see movie.