Kapo (1959)

In WWII Paris, a 14 year old Jewish girl (Susan Strasberg) and her parents are taken to a concentration camp where the parents are executed. With the help of a doctor, she takes over the identity of a dead girl who isn't Jewish and slowly in her attempt to stay alive finds herself dehumanized as she becomes a kapo, a prisoner warden of the other prisoners. One of the first films to directly deal with the Holocaust, this Gillo Pontecorvo (BATTLE OF ALGIERS) film was an Oscar nominee for best foreign language film. By concentrating almost entirely on an individual character, Pontecorvo is able to more fully examine the effects of the Holocaust and how an innocent Jewish girl becomes not only a victim of the Holocaust but eventually of her own conscience as well. The fragile Strasberg gives a strong nuanced performance though it may be difficult to judge the full impact of the performance as the American actress is dubbed into Italian. Though the film has a standard narrative style, visually it has a documentary look courtesy of Aleksandar Sekulovic. The ineffective score by Carlo Rustichelli. With Emmanuelle Riva (HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR), Laurent Terzieff and Didi Perego.