The Auschwitz Report - Jewish Film Festival
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24/10/2022 until 27/11/2022
The Auschwitz Report is not for the squeamish. It is, however, compulsive viewing. This is a side of the Holocaust that is little explored. It is difficult to watch the brutality of some of the scenes and that’s as it should be. We, as a society, should be aware of what happened to prevent a reoccurrence!
The film recounts a period starting on April 7, 1944, when Freddy and Walter, Two Slovakian Jews, are hiding away under a stack of wooden pallets, waiting for the right moment to flee Auschwitz. Their seclusion is intercut with the commanders of the camp interrogating the other prisoners to determine their whereabouts. Their comrades in the ninth barrack are punished for their disappearance, forced to spend days and nights standing in the cold — a routine broken by the brutal punishments by a Nazi officer.
Their compatriots united to do everything possible, including sacrificing their lives, to ensure the Allies know the truth about the camps and bomb them into oblivion.
For Alfred Wetzler and Walter Rosenberg who escaped from Auschwitz in 1944 to bring evidence of the systematic genocide within the camp, the hardest part of issuing The Rosenberg-Wetzler Report was simply being believed.
The cinematography is about as close to black and white as you can get with a colour palette, full of drab browns and grey, the colour of the Polish mud, creating a dismal atmosphere.
Noel Czuczor (a star of Czech films who also played Rosencrantz in the 2018 British film Ophelia) who plays Freddy has a strong presence that helps keep the movie riveting, and Peter Ondrejicka as Walter, his more fragile compatriot plays his role with tenderness.
Notable in the film is John Hannah of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame who plays Warren, the official Wetzler and Rosenberg are trying to convince. A small but totally convincing role.
The director Peter Bebjack is to be commended for the realism portrayed and the message the film delivers. The performances under his guidance are riveting!
Martin Ziaran’s innovative camerawork also deserves a special mention. At times upside down it creates an illusion that we are in the pit with the two men.
The Auschwitz Report is a powerful reminder never to underestimate the historical evils that have been, and could again be, unleashed.
Reviewed by Barry Hill