Kapo (The Criterion Collection)

This is one of the rare films to show the effect of torture and death in the Nazi camps to destroy an individual's moral compass. A Kapo is a prison trustee and the heroine of this tale - Edith (a 14 year old Jewish girl) becomes a Kapo in her desperate effort to do anything - ANYTHING - to survive. It begins when she sexually services a German soldier. Later she takes on the identity of a non-Jewish prisoner, and finally she becomes one of the Kapos - those prisoners who enforce the rules of the Nazis against the other Jews. Alas, that is the reality of the Kapos, and that reality is rarely depicted in the films of the camps. The descent into moral madness is shown - and it is not a pretty experience. The camps were brutal and the pressures are unimaginable to us today. The movie is a valuable addition to the film record of the Holocaust. Another movie about the process of moral degradation is "The Counterfeiters" but it does not depict the horrors as graphically as "Kapo."
Possibly one of the most realistic holocaust films - other than the documentaries - is "The Grey Zone." These are not easy films to watch...so space them out.

Gillo Pontecorvo, who also made "The Battle of Algiers," gives us the only kind of movie that treats the Holocaust respectfully and responsibly: in order to survive, a Jewish girl (almost?) sells her soul by assuming another person's identity and becoming a concentration camp guard. Excellent cinematography and authentic moral complexity.

Criterion recently released legendary Italian director, Gillo Pontecorvo's "Kapo" (1959) to DVD.

In the film, doe-eyed Susan Strasberg plays Edith, a lovely, young Jewish girl transported to a Nazi German concentration camp in Poland who takes on a new identity in order to survive, eventually becoming a "kapo," a Funktionshäftling or "prisoner functionary." Strasberg worked on this film immediately after being inexplicably passed over for the movie version of "The Diary of Anne Frank" following her Tony-nominated Broadway portrayal. Her work in "Kapo" as the conflicted "Nicole" is excellent.

As the Red Army advances steadily towards the camp the prisoners wildly anticipate their liberation. A few of the Soviet soldiers are captured by the Germans and interned in the camp, providing impetus for the film's dramatic ending. Pontecorvo, an Italian communist, depicts the Soviets in what can only be described as a highly idealistic manner while history tells us that the Red Army and NKVD often rivaled the Nazis in apportioning death and misery.

"Kapo," one of the very first films to treat the horrors of the Holocaust in a realistic fashion, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961 as Best Foreign Film. The cinematography of Aleksandar Sekulovic is outstanding. Director Pontecorvo went on to direct the controversial masterpiece, "The Battle of Algiers," in 1966.

But buy this movie for Strasberg, a beautiful and talented actress who never got her due.