Il bambino nella valigia

War drama. We are in World War II and one of the many Nazi concentration camps. Everything indicates that Axis forces are losing against the Allies and the captured Jews hope to be freed soon. But they know SS can execute everyone in the camp before the allied forces arrive. So they've saved some weapons to fight back. But one of the new prisoners has the orphaned 3-year-old boy of a lost friend. Everyone there knows that if they tell the SS, the child will die. But as long as they hide it, they're in danger of both themselves and the counterattack they're preparing. Although it is a hypothetical story it realistically shows the events of that time. Also this film has real documentary of video and broadcast of that time. Serious film and with very good and convincing actors, while demonstrating the messages of that period. The lives of those who did not belong to the Nazis had absolutely no value. Everyday life in the concentration camp in the film is only a minimal sample of the events of the time. Overall excellent work, one of the very good films of the genre. It is proposed to everyone and especially to those who question the true history...

Nackt Unter Wölfen (or Naked Among Wolves) is based on a true story but it's just based and that means it is not the whole truth about what really happened. I can't help having the feeling that in Buchenwald Camp life was much worse than they made it out to be. Not that it looks like a cozy camp but I have serious doubts about the priveleges some prisoners had. I read from another reviewer that the images were hard to watch, while I thought they were not hard enough to show what really happened. The acting isn't bad though, but I just have problems with the authencity of the life at Buchenwald Camp. The movie could have been much better, but that's my opinion.

Based on a novel under the same name, this movie is a combination of (1) events that took place just before the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp; and (2) a fictional story that concerns the hiding and savior of a little boy.

What is especially impressive in this movie, is how well the Buchenwald concentration camp has been reconstructed. The viewer gets a real good idea on how the camp must have looked like.

Since most of the storyline takes place in de administrative buildings of the camp, the viewer unfortunately does not get a realistic view on the harsh and difficult life in the barracks where the prisoners lived. As such, this movie is unfortunately not representative for the extremely difficult life in the Buchenwald camp.

A big plus of this movie, are the very good actors. The uniforms, vehicles, weapons and other props are excellent and make the experience all pretty genuine to the mid-1940's WW2 times.

Overall, I score this movie 7.5/10, making it an 8-star IMDb rating.

I first heard about Buchenwald before I started kindergarten. My parents were talking in the living room late at night and they didn't realize I was in the hallway listening. My uncle was the Army photographer (in the Signal Corps) who accompanied the troops as they liberated Buchenwald. This film, for all of it's merits, seems like a whitewash. It didn't even scratch the surface of the horrors of Buchenwald. When the troops arrived there were human beings, still alive though just skin and bones, stacked like cordwood (i.e. layer upon layer of human beings, stacked in alternating directions). Not just one stack, there were many, many stacks lined up and prepared to be moved into the ovens. When he visited the home of the camp commander he photographed lamps with shades made from human skin, skin with tattoos. My father spoke of drums using human skin. There were other things. These images have polluted my mind from my youngest years. I barely knew what tattoos were...only because of Popeye the Sailor man, and when the drums were mentioned, I had the image of bongo drums because I heard these things in '61 or'62 and bongo drums were all the rage. I remember these things though I just heard them once. My uncle's photographs are in the Library of Congress. He never took another photograph in his life, never smiled, never visited the mountains, never visited the snow, and never spoke of what he had witnessed except once in 1961 or '62 in a special meeting with his father, his brothers, and his brother in law. The film is a good story, but the scenes of the camp and the prisoners seem like a Sunday picnic versus the reality. It felt more like history was being covered up than illuminated by this film.

The actors were all top. The little boy was very nice and played his role perfectly. The filming locations in the concentration camp are well chosen and I felt to be in with the prisoners. What a nightmare. Unbelievable what all these innocent people had to suffer. God stay with them. The film was accompanied by real film documentation from the US invasion until the SS camp Buchenwald. This was a great work from all the crew. Congratulations. Watch it. 7/10