It takes a clever man to make money, it takes a genius to stay alive
The true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, counterfeiter extraordinaire and bohemian.
After getting arrested in a German concentration camp in 1944, he agrees to help the Nazis in an organised counterfeit operation set up to help finance the war effort.
It was the biggest counterfeit money scam of all time. Over 130 million pound sterling were printed, under conditions that couldn't have been more tragic or spectacular. During the last years of the war, as the German Reich saw that the end was near, the authorities decided to produce their own banknotes in the currencies of their major war enemies. They hoped to use the duds to flood the enemy economy and fill the empty war coffers. At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, two barracks were separated from the rest of the camp and the outside world, and transformed into a fully equipped counterfeiter's workshop. "Operation Bernhard" was born. Prisoners were brought to Sachsenhausen from other camps to implement the plan: professional printers, fastidious bank officials and simple craftsmen all became members of the top-secret counterfeiter commando. They had the choice: if they cooperated with the enemy, they had a chance to survive, as first-class prisoners in a "golden cage" with enough to eat and a bed to sleep in. If they sabotaged the operation, a sure death awaited them. For The Couterfeiters, it was not only a question of saving their own lives, but also about saving their conscience as well...
Title: Counterfeiters
Format: DVD
Release Date: 08 Oct 2008
Actor(s): Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zirner, Veit Stubner, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Andreas Schmidt, Tilo Pruckner, Lenn Kudrjawizki, Norman Stoffregen, Bernd Raucamp, Gode Benedix, Oliver Kanter, Dirk Prinz, Hille Bese
Sku: 2114939
Catalogue No: MMA2715
Category: Foreign Films
Disc Count: 1
OFLC Rating: MA15+
Run Time: 98
Region Code: 4
OFLC Advice: Strong Violence
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama, War