Kapo (1959)

This was a very good movie. It is an Italian/French/Yugoslavian movie with many non-Italians speaking Italian. I thought it was a little strange that the main character is supposed to be French, is sent to a German death camp and then work camp and falls in love with a Russian POW (everyone speaking Italian.)

The main character, Edith/Nicole, is played by Susan Strasberg. She played the original Anne Frank on Broadway. She did a very good job in this film (going from innocent to brutal to caring.)

This movie is probably one of the first that show the true horror of the Holocaust. There is one scene where one of the inmates is being led to the gas chamber and she throws herself onto the electrified barbed wire fence and kills herself. While it can not take the place of actually seeing something like that in person (I don't think anything can) it did show 1950s audiences a glimpse of what the Germans did.

The film also brings up the question of what you would do if faced in the same situation. The first time this comes into play was when Edith saw her parents being arrested and joined them. Then when she escapes from the group of kids who are going to be gassed and enters the death camp as an inmate. She then has to decide whether she wants to become a Kapo and survive a little longer - by what many see as helping the Germans. The last decision is at the very end of the movie and has the most impact on her life and possible death. Of course I can not say for certain how I would act (I can only hope I know what I would do), but it does make you stop and think.