World War II · Film · 2007
The Counterfeiters
Die Fälscher
A Jewish master forger from Berlin is pulled out of the camps to run a secret SS workshop forging pounds and dollars, and must decide how far to help the enemy in order to survive.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Berlin
Salomon Sorowitsch lives well off forged passports and banknotes in Berlin's nightlife until a police detective arrests him.
Stop 2: Mauthausen concentration camp
In the camp he survives by painting portraits of the SS guards in exchange for food.
Stop 3: Sachsenhausen, Blocks 18 and 19
Key location
Behind a fence inside the camp, the forgers get beds, food and music, and argue over whether to sabotage the dollar.
Stop 4: Monte Carlo Casino
After the war a quiet man with a camp number on his arm gambles away a suitcase of money at the casino.
What really happened
Operation Bernhard was an SS plan to wreck the British economy with counterfeit money. From 1942 about 140 Jewish prisoners, printers, engravers and bankers, were gathered in isolated Blocks 18 and 19 of Sachsenhausen and produced some 134 million pounds in near-perfect Bank of England notes; their attempts at the dollar were deliberately slowed.
The film adapts the memoir of printer Adolf Burger, one of the saboteurs, while its hero is based on the Russian-born forger Salomon Smolianoff. In reality the workshop was moved in early 1945 to Mauthausen and then to Redl-Zipf and Ebensee, where US troops liberated the prisoners in May 1945; the film shows their liberation at Sachsenhausen instead. It won the 2008 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Die Fälscher
- Directed by
- Stefan Ruzowitzky
- Countries
- Austria, Germany
- Languages
- German, Russian
- Released
- 2007
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Holocaust
- Prisoners of war
- True story
