Kapo

This is an Italian film starring Susan Strasberg. The time period is World War 2.  She plays Edith, a young Jew (the actress is older but the character starts out as 14 years old). She and her parents and others have been taken to a concentration camp. Her parents are elderly so their fate is already decided. Edith tries to find them and instead is helped by the Jewish doctor, also a prisoner, who makes her a new identity of Nicole the political prisoner, instead of the less desirable Jew.


Another inmate Sofia (Didi Perego) tells Nicole to give up hopes of reuniting with her parents, often refraining with “What do you care?” and that Nicole should just worry about cold and hunger, and soon that is indeed what Nicole faces up to. Another woman prisoner, Teresa (Emmanuelle Riva), is looked at with some scorn as she is also a political prisoner and they are treated better than the thieves and Jews. But she knows German and acts as an interpreter.

Being in the workcamp is still no guarantee of safety, as the elderly and sickly continue to be culled, so Nicole soon becomes a “kapo,” a prisoner who helps the Nazis by becoming camp security, and does despicable things for her own survival. She also befriends one of the male Russian POWs brought to work at the camp, Sasha (Laurent Terzieff).

The film shows how the longer Edith/Nicole is in the camp, she becomes hardened and instead of listening to the hopeful words of another inmate, and realizes that she can only survive by being opportunistic and looking out for herself, even though deep down she knows she is morally wrong.

The story and acting overall is good, and the portrayal of the camp, although not grisly and ultra bleak like modern Holocaust films, shows in many ways how dire and touch-and-go life is there. There are distinct personalities and complex relationships. The film doesn’t just focus on the decisions made by Nicole, but also Sofia, Teresa and Sasha, and all of them are forced to make evil decisions in order to survive. Everything is realistically portrayed.