Can a man survive the Holocaust by forging money for his own captors?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The Counterfeiters explores the harrowing moral tightrope walked by Jewish prisoners forced to sustain the Nazi war machine. By creating perfect forgeries of Allied currency, these inmates secured their own survival while grappling with the agonizing reality that their technical brilliance directly supported the regime that sought their destruction.

Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, the 2007 film The Counterfeiters dramatizes Operation Bernhard, a clandestine Nazi initiative designed to destabilize the British economy by flooding it with counterfeit pound notes. The narrative centers on Salomon Sorowitsch, a character based on the real-life experiences of Adolf Burger, a Slovak typographer who was detained in 1942 for creating fake baptismal papers to protect others from deportation. Burger’s 1983 memoir, The Devil's Workshop, served as the primary foundation for the film, with Ruzowitzky consulting the author throughout the production process.

The story follows Sorowitsch from his pre-war life as a successful forger in Berlin to his eventual internment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, he and a group of skilled prisoners are isolated in a specialized facility. While they receive relatively better treatment—including adequate food and decent living quarters—than the general camp population, they remain under the constant threat of brutality. The prisoners face a profound ethical conflict: their labor is essential for their own continued existence, yet it simultaneously aids the German war effort. As the war turns against the Nazis, the group must navigate the tension between self-preservation and the urge to sabotage the operation.

The film’s critical reception was largely positive, earning an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards. Despite its acclaim, the film sparked debate regarding its portrayal of Jewish characters, with some critics expressing concern that the depiction might inadvertently reinforce harmful stereotypes. Ruzowitzky acknowledged these risks during development. Ultimately, the film serves as a complex meditation on complicity and survival, culminating in a post-war scene where the protagonist, haunted by his past, discards the very currency that kept him alive, famously remarking that more can always be produced.

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