Naked Among Wolves (film)
Encyclopedia
Naked Among Wolves is a 1963
East German film directed by Frank Beyer
and starring Erwin Geschonneck
and Armin Mueller-Stahl
. The film is based on the 1958 novel, also titled Naked Among Wolves
, by Bruno Apitz
.
, early 1945. A Polish prisoner named Jankowski, who has been death marched
from Auschwitz
, brings a suitcase to the camp. When the inmates in the storage building open it, they discover a three-year old child. Jankowski tells them he is the son of a couple from the Warsaw Ghetto
who perished. Prisoner Kropinski becomes attached to the boy, and begs Kapo
André Höfel to save him. Höfel, who is a member of the camp's secret communist underground, consults with senior member Bochow. He is instructed to send the child on the next transport to Sachsenhausen
. Höfel cannot bring himself to do so, and hides him. Jankowski is deported to Sachsenhausen alone.
SS man Zweiling stumbles upon Höfel and his friend, fellow communist Pippig, as they play with the child. Knowing well that the American Army is approaching, Zweiling is convinced to turn a blind eye, hoping to present himself as a humane guard to the Americans. His wife tells him to get rid of the boy to avoid punishment by his superiors. Zweiling writes a denunciation letter to the Gestapo
, making it appear as if it was composed by a prisoner. Kluttig and Reineboth, two other SS officers, realize that Zweiling was the informant, but choose to ignore it; they begin to search for the child. Kluttig is keen on massacring the camp's surviving prisoners, but commandant Schwahl forbids it, fearing American retribution - although he knows of the secret resistance. Kluttig and Reineboth brutally torture Höfel and Kropinski, but they refuse to tell the boy's whereabouts. The resistance's leaders meet to discuss the crisis, that may bring about an SS crackdown before their planned uprising. They determine to save the child, who is hidden in a barrack.
Reineboth takes all the personnel of the storage chamber to an investigation by the Gestapo. Pippig is subject to horrible torture. After seeing his injuries, prisoner August Rose has a nervous breakdown and confesses all. Pippig dies of his wounds. Kluttig raids the barrack, but cannot find the child.
The SS plan to evacuate the camp. They order camp elder Krämer, who is the communists' secret leader, to organize the prisoners for transport. Krämer manages to stall the preparations by pretending to cooperate. Resistance leader Bogorski, a Soviet prisoner-of-war, reveals that he hid the child on his own, where Kluttig would not find him. As the deadline for evacuation nears, the boy is taken out from his hiding. Kluttig enters the room, intending to shoot him, but the prisoners form a wall around him and force Kluttig to leave. Krämer orders an armed uprising. The prisoners, led by Bogorski, drive out the remaining SS, who flee. Höfel and Kropinski are freed from their cells. Krämer takes the boy out as the camp is liberated.
, a member of the Communist Party of Germany
, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald concentration camp
from 1937 to 1945. He later recalled that in the last months before liberation, he heard about a little Jewish child who has been harbored by the International Camp Committee
and protected from the SS guards. In a 1974 interview, Apitz claimed that he swore that "If I will survive, I will tell the story of this child."
After the war, Apitz resided in the German Democratic Republic
, working as a journalist and as a dramatist in the state-owned DEFA Studio. On 27 November 1954, Apitz wrote to DEFA's director-general Hans Rodenberg and suggested producing a film about the child's story. Rodenberg rejected the proposal; officially, it was due to the emphasis laid by the East German cultural establishment on depicting active resistance to Fascism rather than passive suffering. Private correspondence also revealed that the studio regarded Apitz as insufficiently talented to hand the task.
Apitz abandoned the idea to make a film and instead, turned his rudimentary screenplay into a novel. He wrote the book from 1955 to 1958. Historian Bill Niven commented that since April 1955, the 10th anniversary of the camp's liberation, "the collective memory of Buchenwald's communist prisoners was transformed into the official memory of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
", and incorporated into the country's "anti-Fascist legitimization myth". Shortly before the dedication of the Buchenwald Memorial Site in 1958, Apitz's novel Naked Among Wolves was published. It turned into an instant success, selling 500,000 copies within a year. Until 1965, it was translated into 25 languages and sold 2,000,000 copies. It was also entered into the East German schools' curriculum. Apitz won the National Prize
3rd class in 1958.
Already in April 1959, DEFA chief dramatist Klaus Wischnewski contacted Apitz with a proposition to adapt his novel for screen, but the author was unwilling and made demands which the studio was unable to accept. Deutscher Fernsehfunk
officials contacted Apitz, and he agreed to produce a television film based on his novel, which was broadcast on 10 April 1960. Although DFF did not have any means to register ratings yet, the adaptation was considered a success. The television critic of the newspaper Tribüne published a column praising the series, and called on DEFA to make an adaptation of its own.
During 1960, after prolonged negotiations, Apitz and DEFA settled on an arrangement. Director Wolfgang Langhoff
, himself a Buchenwald survivor, was chosen to direct the planned film. Being engaged in his duties as manager of the Deutsches Theater
, he eventually declined the role. It was then passed on to the young Frank Beyer
, who had been working on Star-Crossed Lovers. In early 1962, he and Apitz began working on the planned picture.
Beyer originally intended to have Ernst Busch
play the role of Krämer, but the singer declined since his face were half-paralyzed during a bombing raid in World War II. Erwin Geschonneck
was chosen in his stead. The director also picked his neighbour's son, the four-year-old Jürgen Strauch, to portray the child saved by the resistance. DEFA sought out foreign actors for the roles of the foreign members of the resistance, like Soviet actor Viktor Avdiushko, who was already well known in East Germany and cast as Bogorski. A minor part was given to Apitz himself - he appeared as an old man caring for the child who is found dead after the camp's liberation. Beyer also retained several of the actors who performed in the television adaptation, like Wolfram Handel and Fred Delmare
; Peter Sturm
, who was called to depict August Rose for the second time, was very reluctant and had to be pressured by Apitz and the director. Sturm, who was twice incarcerated in Buchenwald, was badly depressed by the work on the film and fell ill after it ended.
Deputy Minister of Defence Admiral Waldemar Verner
provided more than 3,000 soldiers to be used as extras. Principal photography took place in Buchenwald - which was partly renovated by the Ministry of Construction for this purpose - and in the Babelsberg Studios
from 4 May to 10 September 1962.
, the League of People's Friendship and to other public organizations. Private screenings were carried out in West Germany already in April 1964 - for example, by the East-German-funded Uni-Doc-Verleih in Munich - but although the government never banned it, a local distributor - Pegasus Film - only purchased the rights to it in 1967. By that time, the film was already exported to all European countries, as well as to Canada, the United States, India, Japan, China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Guinea. DFF
had first broadcast it on television in 11-12 September 1966, and it had five re-runs there during the 1970s.
, in July 1963. Although the Communist Party of the USSR instructed the Soviet members of the jury to award the Grand Prix to the East German entry, Naked Among Wolves narrowly lost it to Federico Fellini
's 8½
; allegedly, during the thirty-six hour debate of the jury before the choosing of the winner, members Stanley Kramer
, Jean Marais
and Sergio Amidei
threatened to leave if Beyer would receive the prize rather than Fellini. Member Jan Rybkowski described Naked Among Wolves as a "glossing over of reality."
On 6 October 1963, Apitz, Beyer, cinematographer Günter Marczinkowsky and art director Alfred Hirschmeier received the National Prize of East Germany
, 1st degree, for their work. In 14 March 1964, actors Erik S. Klein, Herbert Köfer, Wolfram Handel and Gerry Wolf were all awarded the Heinrich Greif Prize
1st class in recognition of their appearance in Naked Among Wolves.
The Evangelical Film Guild of Frankfurt am Main chose Naked Among Wolves as Best Film of the Month for March 1968. The West German Wiesbaden-based National Review of Cinema and Media granted it the assessment "Valuable", its second-highest rating for motion pictures.
's newspaper Neues Deutschland
that "with Naked Among Wolves, the filmmakers of our country have fulfilled a national duty. For the first time in German cinema, the human greatness, the courage, the revolutionary fervor and the international solidarity of the political prisoners in the Fascist concentration camps are displayed and set as the main theme of a motion picture... This film will go down in the history of German Socialist cinema." In a column published in East Berlin's Die Weltbühne
magazine, Peter Edel noted that while it continued the tradition of DEFA anti-Fascist films like Marriage in the Shadows and Five Cartridges
, Naked Among Wolves was the first such to be set in a concentration camp. He called it "the culmination of DEFA's cinematic work on this subject." Helmut Ulrich wrote in Neue Zeit: "Young people - not only they, but they above all - must see this film." Former Buchenwald inmate and Commandant of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, Major General Heinz Gronau, who viewed the film in a special screening for survivors before the premeiere, told Neues Deutschland
that he approved of the manner in which "the proletarian internationalism was emphasized."
The critic of the West German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, who viewed the film in a closed screening held during the 13th Berlin International Film Festival
, wrote that "it has a wide scope, and fails to cover it all... It does not reach the level of DEFA works like Man of Straw
or The Murderers Are Among Us, but is still an honest, well-made picture." Karl Feuerer from the Hamburg-based Die andere Zeitung wrote in 1964: "As long as the Brown past is not overcome... And people such as Globke
and Bütefisch
cling to their positions of power... Such pictures are required." At 1968, after it was released in the Federal Republic, Hellmut Haffner from Hamburg's Sonntagblatt commented that "today, it may take five years until a film from Germany arrives in Germany." Die Welt
critic Friedrich Luft commented: "The exclusive appearance of the communists in the best roles... Makes the film all too partisan. Thus, one remains skeptic of its important moral more than one would wish. It is a pity that a DEFA film has to be taken in this manner, especially in this case."
The critic of the Greek newspaper Ethnos complained that the film presented "a nice, well-tended Buchenwald, where only the disobedient and the communists are punished severely." The reviewer of Ta Nea
commented: "All the 'terrible things' we see in the studio version are not even a pale imitation of Buchenwald's reality... Of course the film was made by Germans, but does it give them the right to talk about the noose without mentioning the victims?"
Penelope Gilliatt
, who reviewed the film for The Observer
, commented that it was "an artistic micro-cosmos of the German situation from East German perspective... Well photographed and better than it might have been." Philip Oakes of The Sunday Telegraph opined that Naked Among Wolves was "rough, gory and realistic, but above all meant to be entertaining... Containing propaganda... A violent variation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
The New York Times reviwer Bosley Crowther
wrote in 19 April 1967: "Another torturing recollection of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, this one stamped with the authenticity of production in East Germany, is rendered a bit less torturing than usual by a fresh and hopeful theme in DEFA's Naked Among Wolves."
Naked Among Wolves was centered on the inner conflicts of individual persons, unlike earlier films from the 1950s about the history of the wartime resistance. Thomas Heimann remarked that "Beginning from 1960... A new generation of directors, Beyer among them, sought to redress the past in a manner somewhat less conforming to the official view of history... The emphasis was laid on individual stories... Of the anti-Fascists."
Paul Cooke and Marc Silberman wrote that Naked Among Wolves, like all DEFA's works, "was closely aligned to the state's official historiography and reflected changes in the Party's agenda... A canonical text."; Anke Pinkert commented that "with a younger postwar audience in mind... The films of the early 1960s... Including Naked Among Wolves... Aimed at a more realist approach to history". Thiele pointed out that the one of the important aspects of the plot was that André Höfel's decision to save the child was done in contradiction to party resolutions: "Marcel Reich-Ranicki
's explanation to the success of the novel can be also used in regards to the film - in a country in which one of the most popular songs was called The Party is Always Right, people were thankful for a story that was made possible due to the disobedience of a comrade."
However, the picture still conveyed conservative messages: the film's hero, Krämer, leader of the communists of Buchenwald, is contrasted with the character of August Rose, who betrays his friends. While Rose is portrayed sympathetically, he is a coward nonetheless. Rose is not identified as a communist; according to Thiele, "he is obviously implied to be a Social-Democrat
." Another figure was that of Leonid Bogorski, granted a more prominent role than in the novel: Bogorski saves the child completely on his own, a feat which he performs with others in Apitz's original, and also heads the uprising. Klaus Wischnewski, DEFA's chief dramatist, told that he was disturbed by the "stereotypical leadership role which the Soviet Bogorski occupies." Thomas Heimann remarked that Bogrski, who acts as the deus ex machina
, represents the "higher authority and wisdom of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
."
Another motif was the flight of the SS officers, who are all seen leaving the camp unharmed, most of them in civilian clothing which they have prepared beforehand. Many reviews of the film in East Germany stressed out that the former war criminals had little to fear in the Federal Republic. Bill Niven wrote that the suggestion that the SS fled to West Germany was accentuated in the film more than in the novel, although Beyer was careful not to draw explicit parallels between the camp and the country. Daniela Berghahn remarked that "the film's production history illustrates how the 'Jewish question' was utilized for political ends"; in the early 1960s, during and after the Eichmann Trial, the SED sought to "maximize the propaganda value in a campaign to remind the world that many former Nazis were living in West Germany."
In 1964, the East Berlin-based Berliner Zeitung am Abend located the child upon whose story the novel was based: Stefan Jerzy Zweig
, who survived Buchenwald at the age of four with his father Zacharias, with the help of two prisoner functionaries: Robert Siewert
and Willi Bleicher. Bleicher, a Social-Democrat and the kapo of the storage building, was the one who convinced the SS man in charge of him to turn a blind eye to the child. When Zweig was to be sent to Auschwitz, prisoners who were tasked with compiling the deportees' list erased his name and replaced him with Willy Blum, a sixteen-year old Sinto
boy. Zweig moved to Israel
after liberation, and later studied in France. After he was discovered to be the 'Buchenwald child', he settled in East Germany, where he remained until 1972. Zweig received much attention from the media and the public opinion in the country. The East German establishment emphasized that he was saved by communists: Bleicher's political orientation was concealed. Blum's fate was only disclosed after the German reunification.
The Self-Liberation of Buchenwald, which was celebrated on every 11 April in East Germany, held an important status in national consciousness before the publication of the novel, already since the late 1940s; as shown in the film, the communist prisoners - who have organized a secret resistance network beforehand - were purported to have risen up against the SS and set themselves free before the arrival of the American army. While the Buchenwald Resistance
existed, it was not dominated solely by communists and its role in the camp's liberation, as well as its conduct in the years before, were greatly embellished for propaganda purposes.
Director Beyer told historian Bill Niven that the ending scene's score - which was not triumphant, but rather menacing - was the only manner in which he could hint to the existence of the postwar NKVD special camps
, that became known to the public only after reunification; his uncle was imprisoned in one such. Until 1950, the Soviets operated Special Camp no. 2 in Buchenwald itself.
1963 in film
The year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
East German film directed by Frank Beyer
Frank Beyer
Frank Beyer was German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Traces of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the...
and starring Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.-Early life:...
and Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
. The film is based on the 1958 novel, also titled Naked Among Wolves
Naked Among Wolves (novel)
Naked Among Wolves is a novel by the East German author Bruno Apitz. The novel, first published in 1958, tells the story of prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp who risk their lives to hide a Jewish boy. It was translated into 25 languages and published in 28 countries...
, by Bruno Apitz
Bruno Apitz
Bruno Apitz was a German writer.Apitz was born in Leipzig as the twelfth child of a washer woman. He attended school until he was fourteen, then started training as a printer. During World War I he was a passionate supporter of German Communist Party leader Karl Liebknecht...
.
Plot
Buchenwald concentration campBuchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
, early 1945. A Polish prisoner named Jankowski, who has been death marched
Death marches (Holocaust)
The death marches refer to the forcible movement between Autumn 1944 and late April 1945 by Nazi Germany of thousands of prisoners from German concentration camps near the war front to camps inside Germany.-General:...
from Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, brings a suitcase to the camp. When the inmates in the storage building open it, they discover a three-year old child. Jankowski tells them he is the son of a couple from the Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
who perished. Prisoner Kropinski becomes attached to the boy, and begs Kapo
Kapo (concentration camp)
A kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during World War II in any of certain lower administrative positions. The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary", but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.- Etymology :The origin of "kapo"...
André Höfel to save him. Höfel, who is a member of the camp's secret communist underground, consults with senior member Bochow. He is instructed to send the child on the next transport to Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
. Höfel cannot bring himself to do so, and hides him. Jankowski is deported to Sachsenhausen alone.
SS man Zweiling stumbles upon Höfel and his friend, fellow communist Pippig, as they play with the child. Knowing well that the American Army is approaching, Zweiling is convinced to turn a blind eye, hoping to present himself as a humane guard to the Americans. His wife tells him to get rid of the boy to avoid punishment by his superiors. Zweiling writes a denunciation letter to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, making it appear as if it was composed by a prisoner. Kluttig and Reineboth, two other SS officers, realize that Zweiling was the informant, but choose to ignore it; they begin to search for the child. Kluttig is keen on massacring the camp's surviving prisoners, but commandant Schwahl forbids it, fearing American retribution - although he knows of the secret resistance. Kluttig and Reineboth brutally torture Höfel and Kropinski, but they refuse to tell the boy's whereabouts. The resistance's leaders meet to discuss the crisis, that may bring about an SS crackdown before their planned uprising. They determine to save the child, who is hidden in a barrack.
Reineboth takes all the personnel of the storage chamber to an investigation by the Gestapo. Pippig is subject to horrible torture. After seeing his injuries, prisoner August Rose has a nervous breakdown and confesses all. Pippig dies of his wounds. Kluttig raids the barrack, but cannot find the child.
The SS plan to evacuate the camp. They order camp elder Krämer, who is the communists' secret leader, to organize the prisoners for transport. Krämer manages to stall the preparations by pretending to cooperate. Resistance leader Bogorski, a Soviet prisoner-of-war, reveals that he hid the child on his own, where Kluttig would not find him. As the deadline for evacuation nears, the boy is taken out from his hiding. Kluttig enters the room, intending to shoot him, but the prisoners form a wall around him and force Kluttig to leave. Krämer orders an armed uprising. The prisoners, led by Bogorski, drive out the remaining SS, who flee. Höfel and Kropinski are freed from their cells. Krämer takes the boy out as the camp is liberated.
Cast
- Jürgen Strauch: child
- Erwin GeschonneckErwin GeschonneckErwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.-Early life:...
: Walter Krämer - Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
: André Höfel - Fred DelmareFred DelmareFred Delmare was a German actor.He was born in Hüttensteinach. He appeared in several films and television series, last in 70 episodes of In aller Freundschaft between 1998 and 2006. He died in May, 1 2009....
: Rudi Pippig - Gerry WolffGerry WolffGerry Wolff was a German actor.Wolff was born in Bremen, Germany and died in Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Germany.-Selected filmography:* Bärenburger Schnurre * Naked Among Wolves...
: Herbert Bochow - Peter SturmPeter SturmNot to be confused with the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control director by the same name.Josef Michel Dischel , known by his adopted stage name Peter Sturm, was an Austrian and an East German actor.-Early life:Josef Michel Dischel was born into a religious Jewish family...
: August Rose - Viktor AvdyushkoViktor AvdyushkoViktor Antonovich Avdyushko was a Soviet actor and a People's Artist of the Russian SFSR.-Early life:...
: Leonid Bogorski - Zygmunt MalanowiczZygmunt MalanowiczZygmunt Malanowicz is a Polish film actor. He has appeared in 30 films since 1962.-Selected filmography:* Knife in the Water * Naked among Wolves * Hunting Flies * Landscape After the Battle...
: Josef Pribula - Werner DisselWerner DisselWerner Friedrich Dissel was a German actor and director.-Biography:Dissel's began working as a newspaper photographer in the late 1920s. After the Nazis' rise to power, he became a member of an antifascist group headed by Harro Schulze-Boysen, and was involved in the resistance newspaper Wille zum...
: Otto Lange - Bruno ApitzBruno ApitzBruno Apitz was a German writer.Apitz was born in Leipzig as the twelfth child of a washer woman. He attended school until he was fourteen, then started training as a printer. During World War I he was a passionate supporter of German Communist Party leader Karl Liebknecht...
: old man - Angela BrunnerAngela Brunner-Selected filmography:* Ernst Thälmann - Führer seiner Klasse * Junges Gemüse * Naked among Wolves * The Heathens of Kummerow * Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog * Time of the Storks...
: Hortense Zweiling - Krystyn Wójcik: Marian Kropinski
- Hans-Hartmut Krüger: Henri Riomand
- Bolesław Płotnicki: Zacharias Jankowski
- Jan Pohan: Kodiczek
- Leonid Svetlov: Zidkowski
- Christoph Engel: Peter van Dahlen
- Hans Hardt-Hardtloff: block elder
- Werner Möhring: Heinrich Schüpp
- Hermann Eckhardt: Maximilian Wurach
- Peter-Paul Goes: Max Müller
- Günter Rüger: Karl Wunderlich
- Albert Zahn: Otto Runki
- Steffen Klaus: Alfred
- Friedrich Teitge: jailer
- Dieter Wien: block leader
- Friedhelm Eberle: block leader
- Otto Krieg-Helbig: Rottenführer
- Erik S. Klein: Untersturmführer Reineboth
- Herbert Köfer: Hauptsturmführer Kluttig
- Wolfram Handel: Hauptscharführer Zweiling
- Heinz Scholz: Standartenführer Schwahl
- Fred Ludwig: Oberscharführer Mandrill
- Joachim Tomaschewsky: Sturmbannführer Weisangk
- Gerd Ehlers: Gestapo commissar Gey
Production
Bruno ApitzBruno Apitz
Bruno Apitz was a German writer.Apitz was born in Leipzig as the twelfth child of a washer woman. He attended school until he was fourteen, then started training as a printer. During World War I he was a passionate supporter of German Communist Party leader Karl Liebknecht...
, a member of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
from 1937 to 1945. He later recalled that in the last months before liberation, he heard about a little Jewish child who has been harbored by the International Camp Committee
Buchenwald Resistance
The Buchenwald Resistance was a resistance group of prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp. It involved Communists, Social Democrats, and people affiliated with other political parties, unaffiliated people, and Christians. Because Buchenwald prisoners came from a number of countries, the...
and protected from the SS guards. In a 1974 interview, Apitz claimed that he swore that "If I will survive, I will tell the story of this child."
After the war, Apitz resided in the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
, working as a journalist and as a dramatist in the state-owned DEFA Studio. On 27 November 1954, Apitz wrote to DEFA's director-general Hans Rodenberg and suggested producing a film about the child's story. Rodenberg rejected the proposal; officially, it was due to the emphasis laid by the East German cultural establishment on depicting active resistance to Fascism rather than passive suffering. Private correspondence also revealed that the studio regarded Apitz as insufficiently talented to hand the task.
Apitz abandoned the idea to make a film and instead, turned his rudimentary screenplay into a novel. He wrote the book from 1955 to 1958. Historian Bill Niven commented that since April 1955, the 10th anniversary of the camp's liberation, "the collective memory of Buchenwald's communist prisoners was transformed into the official memory of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
", and incorporated into the country's "anti-Fascist legitimization myth". Shortly before the dedication of the Buchenwald Memorial Site in 1958, Apitz's novel Naked Among Wolves was published. It turned into an instant success, selling 500,000 copies within a year. Until 1965, it was translated into 25 languages and sold 2,000,000 copies. It was also entered into the East German schools' curriculum. Apitz won the National Prize
National Prize of East Germany
The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic was an award of the German Democratic Republic given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement...
3rd class in 1958.
Already in April 1959, DEFA chief dramatist Klaus Wischnewski contacted Apitz with a proposition to adapt his novel for screen, but the author was unwilling and made demands which the studio was unable to accept. Deutscher Fernsehfunk
Deutscher Fernsehfunk
Deutscher Fernsehfunk , known from 1972 to 1990 as Fernsehen der DDR , was the state television broadcaster in East Germany.-Foundation:...
officials contacted Apitz, and he agreed to produce a television film based on his novel, which was broadcast on 10 April 1960. Although DFF did not have any means to register ratings yet, the adaptation was considered a success. The television critic of the newspaper Tribüne published a column praising the series, and called on DEFA to make an adaptation of its own.
During 1960, after prolonged negotiations, Apitz and DEFA settled on an arrangement. Director Wolfgang Langhoff
Wolfgang Langhoff
Wolfgang Langhoff was a German theatre, film and television actor and theatre director.-Early career:...
, himself a Buchenwald survivor, was chosen to direct the planned film. Being engaged in his duties as manager of the Deutsches Theater
Deutsches Theater
The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a well-known German theatre. It was built in 1850 as Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, after Frederick William IV of Prussia. Located on Schumann Street , the Deutsches Theater consists of two adjoining stages that share a common, classical facade...
, he eventually declined the role. It was then passed on to the young Frank Beyer
Frank Beyer
Frank Beyer was German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Traces of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the...
, who had been working on Star-Crossed Lovers. In early 1962, he and Apitz began working on the planned picture.
Beyer originally intended to have Ernst Busch
Ernst Busch (actor)
Ernst Busch was a German singer and actor.Busch first rose to prominence as an interpreter of political songs, particularly those of Kurt Tucholsky, in the Berlin Kabarett scene of the 1920s...
play the role of Krämer, but the singer declined since his face were half-paralyzed during a bombing raid in World War II. Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.-Early life:...
was chosen in his stead. The director also picked his neighbour's son, the four-year-old Jürgen Strauch, to portray the child saved by the resistance. DEFA sought out foreign actors for the roles of the foreign members of the resistance, like Soviet actor Viktor Avdiushko, who was already well known in East Germany and cast as Bogorski. A minor part was given to Apitz himself - he appeared as an old man caring for the child who is found dead after the camp's liberation. Beyer also retained several of the actors who performed in the television adaptation, like Wolfram Handel and Fred Delmare
Fred Delmare
Fred Delmare was a German actor.He was born in Hüttensteinach. He appeared in several films and television series, last in 70 episodes of In aller Freundschaft between 1998 and 2006. He died in May, 1 2009....
; Peter Sturm
Peter Sturm
Not to be confused with the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control director by the same name.Josef Michel Dischel , known by his adopted stage name Peter Sturm, was an Austrian and an East German actor.-Early life:Josef Michel Dischel was born into a religious Jewish family...
, who was called to depict August Rose for the second time, was very reluctant and had to be pressured by Apitz and the director. Sturm, who was twice incarcerated in Buchenwald, was badly depressed by the work on the film and fell ill after it ended.
Deputy Minister of Defence Admiral Waldemar Verner
Waldemar Verner
Waldemar Verner was chief of the People's Navy of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic and brother of Paul Verner....
provided more than 3,000 soldiers to be used as extras. Principal photography took place in Buchenwald - which was partly renovated by the Ministry of Construction for this purpose - and in the Babelsberg Studios
Babelsberg Studios
The Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
from 4 May to 10 September 1962.
Distribution and viewing figures
On 10 April 1963, the eve of 18th Anniversary of Buchenwald's Self-Liberation, the film had its premiere in East Berlin's Colosseum Cinema. It was released in 24 copies in East Germany, and sold 806,915 tickets in the first year afterwards. Until 1976, it was viewed by 1.5 million people in cinemas, and by 2.5 million up to 1994. In addition, 35mm reel copies were supplied to the National People's ArmyNational People's Army
The National People’s Army were the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic .The NVA was established in 1956 and disestablished in 1990. There were frequent reports of East German advisors with Communist African countries during the Cold War...
, the League of People's Friendship and to other public organizations. Private screenings were carried out in West Germany already in April 1964 - for example, by the East-German-funded Uni-Doc-Verleih in Munich - but although the government never banned it, a local distributor - Pegasus Film - only purchased the rights to it in 1967. By that time, the film was already exported to all European countries, as well as to Canada, the United States, India, Japan, China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Guinea. DFF
Deutscher Fernsehfunk
Deutscher Fernsehfunk , known from 1972 to 1990 as Fernsehen der DDR , was the state television broadcaster in East Germany.-Foundation:...
had first broadcast it on television in 11-12 September 1966, and it had five re-runs there during the 1970s.
Awards
Naked Among Wolves won a Silver Prize in the III Moscow International Film FestivalMoscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....
, in July 1963. Although the Communist Party of the USSR instructed the Soviet members of the jury to award the Grand Prix to the East German entry, Naked Among Wolves narrowly lost it to Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's 8½
8½
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
; allegedly, during the thirty-six hour debate of the jury before the choosing of the winner, members Stanley Kramer
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer. Kramer was responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous "message" movies...
, Jean Marais
Jean Marais
-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....
and Sergio Amidei
Sergio Amidei
Sergio Amidei was an Italian screenwriter and an important figure in Italy's neorealist movement.Amidei was born in Trieste. He worked with famed Italian directors such as Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica...
threatened to leave if Beyer would receive the prize rather than Fellini. Member Jan Rybkowski described Naked Among Wolves as a "glossing over of reality."
On 6 October 1963, Apitz, Beyer, cinematographer Günter Marczinkowsky and art director Alfred Hirschmeier received the National Prize of East Germany
National Prize of East Germany
The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic was an award of the German Democratic Republic given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement...
, 1st degree, for their work. In 14 March 1964, actors Erik S. Klein, Herbert Köfer, Wolfram Handel and Gerry Wolf were all awarded the Heinrich Greif Prize
Heinrich Greif Prize
The Heinrich Greif Prize was an East German state award bestowed on individuals for contribution to the state's cinema and television industry.-History:...
1st class in recognition of their appearance in Naked Among Wolves.
The Evangelical Film Guild of Frankfurt am Main chose Naked Among Wolves as Best Film of the Month for March 1968. The West German Wiesbaden-based National Review of Cinema and Media granted it the assessment "Valuable", its second-highest rating for motion pictures.
Critical response
A day after the premiere, Horst Knietzsch wrote in the Socialist Unity Party of GermanySocialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
's newspaper Neues Deutschland
Neues Deutschland
Neues Deutschland is a national German daily newspaper. It was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , which governed the German Democratic Republic , and as such served as one of the party's most important organs...
that "with Naked Among Wolves, the filmmakers of our country have fulfilled a national duty. For the first time in German cinema, the human greatness, the courage, the revolutionary fervor and the international solidarity of the political prisoners in the Fascist concentration camps are displayed and set as the main theme of a motion picture... This film will go down in the history of German Socialist cinema." In a column published in East Berlin's Die Weltbühne
Die Weltbühne
Die Weltbühne was a German weekly magazine focused on politics, art, and business. The Weltbühne was founded in Berlin on 7 September 1905 by Siegfried Jacobsohn and was originally created strictly as a theater magazine under the title Die Schaubühne. It was renamed Die Weltbühne on 4 April 1918...
magazine, Peter Edel noted that while it continued the tradition of DEFA anti-Fascist films like Marriage in the Shadows and Five Cartridges
Five Cartridges
Five Cartridges is a 1960 East German film directed by Frank Beyer and starring Erwin Geschonneck, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Manfred Krug.-Plot:During the Spanish Civil War, a battalion of the International Brigades is cut off withouts water or ammunition...
, Naked Among Wolves was the first such to be set in a concentration camp. He called it "the culmination of DEFA's cinematic work on this subject." Helmut Ulrich wrote in Neue Zeit: "Young people - not only they, but they above all - must see this film." Former Buchenwald inmate and Commandant of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, Major General Heinz Gronau, who viewed the film in a special screening for survivors before the premeiere, told Neues Deutschland
Neues Deutschland
Neues Deutschland is a national German daily newspaper. It was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , which governed the German Democratic Republic , and as such served as one of the party's most important organs...
that he approved of the manner in which "the proletarian internationalism was emphasized."
The critic of the West German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
, who viewed the film in a closed screening held during the 13th Berlin International Film Festival
13th Berlin International Film Festival
The 13th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 21 June to 2 July 1963.-Jury:* Wendy Toye * Harry R. Sokal* Fernando Ayala* Jean-Pierre Melville* B. R...
, wrote that "it has a wide scope, and fails to cover it all... It does not reach the level of DEFA works like Man of Straw
Der Untertan (film)
Der Untertan is an East German film directed by Wolfgang Staudte based on the novel of the same name. It was released in 1951.-Cast:* Werner Peters as Diederich Heßling* Paul Esser as von Wulckow* Renate Fischer as Guste Daimchen...
or The Murderers Are Among Us, but is still an honest, well-made picture." Karl Feuerer from the Hamburg-based Die andere Zeitung wrote in 1964: "As long as the Brown past is not overcome... And people such as Globke
Hans Globke
- See also :* Theodor Oberländer* Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff- Bibliography :* Tetens, T.H. The New Germany and the Old Nazis. Random House/Marzani & Munsel, New York, 1961. LCN 61-7240....
and Bütefisch
Heinrich Bütefisch
Heinrich Bütefisch was a German chemist and manager of the IG Farben.As a leading figure in IG Farben, he joined the Freunde des Reichsführer-SS, an exclusive group close to Heinrich Himmler that allowed the prominent individuals in German society to effectively become SS officers without having...
cling to their positions of power... Such pictures are required." At 1968, after it was released in the Federal Republic, Hellmut Haffner from Hamburg's Sonntagblatt commented that "today, it may take five years until a film from Germany arrives in Germany." Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
critic Friedrich Luft commented: "The exclusive appearance of the communists in the best roles... Makes the film all too partisan. Thus, one remains skeptic of its important moral more than one would wish. It is a pity that a DEFA film has to be taken in this manner, especially in this case."
The critic of the Greek newspaper Ethnos complained that the film presented "a nice, well-tended Buchenwald, where only the disobedient and the communists are punished severely." The reviewer of Ta Nea
Ta Nea
Ta Nea is a daily newspaper published in Athens, owned by Lambrakis Press Group that also publishes the newspaper To Vima. It is a traditional center-left friendly newspaper and has strongly supported PASOK, the Greek Socialist Party in the 1980s and 1990s...
commented: "All the 'terrible things' we see in the studio version are not even a pale imitation of Buchenwald's reality... Of course the film was made by Germans, but does it give them the right to talk about the noose without mentioning the victims?"
Penelope Gilliatt
Penelope Gilliatt
Penelope Gilliatt was an English novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and film critic....
, who reviewed the film for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, commented that it was "an artistic micro-cosmos of the German situation from East German perspective... Well photographed and better than it might have been." Philip Oakes of The Sunday Telegraph opined that Naked Among Wolves was "rough, gory and realistic, but above all meant to be entertaining... Containing propaganda... A violent variation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
The New York Times reviwer Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
wrote in 19 April 1967: "Another torturing recollection of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, this one stamped with the authenticity of production in East Germany, is rendered a bit less torturing than usual by a fresh and hopeful theme in DEFA's Naked Among Wolves."
Analysis
Martina Thiele remarked that "Naked Among Wolves is not a holocaust film in the strict sense, but rather a 'testimony of anti-Fascim'." The international solidarity of the communists was emphasized in the picture, and the racial classifications in the concentration camp were largely overlooked. Daniela Berghahn wrote that official East German discourse about the wartime persecution of Jews was subject to Marxist interpretation of history, and therefore the topic was marginalized. In addition, the politics of the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli Conflict made the theme highly sensitive. Berghahn commented that the child was not in the center of the plot, but served as an "infantile victim" who had to be protected by the "communist heroes... Beyer's film reaffirms the official GDR conception of the Holocaust." Thiele also noted that the word 'Jew' is barely mentioned in the film or in the novel. Bill Niven concluded: "It is not Jews who are seen to suffer, but Germans - for a Jew. Resistance and victimhood reside with Pippig, Höfel and Krämer."Naked Among Wolves was centered on the inner conflicts of individual persons, unlike earlier films from the 1950s about the history of the wartime resistance. Thomas Heimann remarked that "Beginning from 1960... A new generation of directors, Beyer among them, sought to redress the past in a manner somewhat less conforming to the official view of history... The emphasis was laid on individual stories... Of the anti-Fascists."
Paul Cooke and Marc Silberman wrote that Naked Among Wolves, like all DEFA's works, "was closely aligned to the state's official historiography and reflected changes in the Party's agenda... A canonical text."; Anke Pinkert commented that "with a younger postwar audience in mind... The films of the early 1960s... Including Naked Among Wolves... Aimed at a more realist approach to history". Thiele pointed out that the one of the important aspects of the plot was that André Höfel's decision to save the child was done in contradiction to party resolutions: "Marcel Reich-Ranicki
Marcel Reich-Ranicki
Marcel Reich-Ranicki is a Polish-born German literary critic and member of the literary group Gruppe 47. He is regarded as one of the most influential contemporary literary critics in the field of German literature and therefore was in Germany often called the 'Pope of literature' .-Life:Marcel...
's explanation to the success of the novel can be also used in regards to the film - in a country in which one of the most popular songs was called The Party is Always Right, people were thankful for a story that was made possible due to the disobedience of a comrade."
However, the picture still conveyed conservative messages: the film's hero, Krämer, leader of the communists of Buchenwald, is contrasted with the character of August Rose, who betrays his friends. While Rose is portrayed sympathetically, he is a coward nonetheless. Rose is not identified as a communist; according to Thiele, "he is obviously implied to be a Social-Democrat
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
." Another figure was that of Leonid Bogorski, granted a more prominent role than in the novel: Bogorski saves the child completely on his own, a feat which he performs with others in Apitz's original, and also heads the uprising. Klaus Wischnewski, DEFA's chief dramatist, told that he was disturbed by the "stereotypical leadership role which the Soviet Bogorski occupies." Thomas Heimann remarked that Bogrski, who acts as the deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
, represents the "higher authority and wisdom of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
."
Another motif was the flight of the SS officers, who are all seen leaving the camp unharmed, most of them in civilian clothing which they have prepared beforehand. Many reviews of the film in East Germany stressed out that the former war criminals had little to fear in the Federal Republic. Bill Niven wrote that the suggestion that the SS fled to West Germany was accentuated in the film more than in the novel, although Beyer was careful not to draw explicit parallels between the camp and the country. Daniela Berghahn remarked that "the film's production history illustrates how the 'Jewish question' was utilized for political ends"; in the early 1960s, during and after the Eichmann Trial, the SED sought to "maximize the propaganda value in a campaign to remind the world that many former Nazis were living in West Germany."
Historical accuracy
Apitz had presented his novel as a fictional story based on true events: in the foreword, he dedicated Naked Among Wolves to "our fallen comrades in arms from all nations... In their honor, I have named many of the characters after some of them."In 1964, the East Berlin-based Berliner Zeitung am Abend located the child upon whose story the novel was based: Stefan Jerzy Zweig
Stefan Jerzy Zweig
Stefan Jerzy Zweig is an author and cameraman and is known as the Buchenwald child from the novel by Bruno Apitz, Naked Among Wolves. He survived Buchenwald concentration camp at age four by being protected by his father and other prisoners.- Early years :Stefan Jerzy Zweig lived with his parents,...
, who survived Buchenwald at the age of four with his father Zacharias, with the help of two prisoner functionaries: Robert Siewert
Robert Siewert
Robert Siewert was a German politician and fought in the German Resistance against National Socialism. He is a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp, where he helped save the life of Stefan Jerzy Zweig, among others....
and Willi Bleicher. Bleicher, a Social-Democrat and the kapo of the storage building, was the one who convinced the SS man in charge of him to turn a blind eye to the child. When Zweig was to be sent to Auschwitz, prisoners who were tasked with compiling the deportees' list erased his name and replaced him with Willy Blum, a sixteen-year old Sinto
Sinti
Sinti or Sinta or Sinte is the name of a Romani or Gypsy population in Europe. Traditionally nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled...
boy. Zweig moved to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
after liberation, and later studied in France. After he was discovered to be the 'Buchenwald child', he settled in East Germany, where he remained until 1972. Zweig received much attention from the media and the public opinion in the country. The East German establishment emphasized that he was saved by communists: Bleicher's political orientation was concealed. Blum's fate was only disclosed after the German reunification.
The Self-Liberation of Buchenwald, which was celebrated on every 11 April in East Germany, held an important status in national consciousness before the publication of the novel, already since the late 1940s; as shown in the film, the communist prisoners - who have organized a secret resistance network beforehand - were purported to have risen up against the SS and set themselves free before the arrival of the American army. While the Buchenwald Resistance
Buchenwald Resistance
The Buchenwald Resistance was a resistance group of prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp. It involved Communists, Social Democrats, and people affiliated with other political parties, unaffiliated people, and Christians. Because Buchenwald prisoners came from a number of countries, the...
existed, it was not dominated solely by communists and its role in the camp's liberation, as well as its conduct in the years before, were greatly embellished for propaganda purposes.
Director Beyer told historian Bill Niven that the ending scene's score - which was not triumphant, but rather menacing - was the only manner in which he could hint to the existence of the postwar NKVD special camps
NKVD special camps
NKVD special camps were NKVD-run late and post-World War II internment camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany and areas east of the Oder-Neisse line. The short-lived camps east of the line were subsequently transferred to the Soviet occupation zone, where they were set up by the Soviet...
, that became known to the public only after reunification; his uncle was imprisoned in one such. Until 1950, the Soviets operated Special Camp no. 2 in Buchenwald itself.
External links
- Original poster of Naked Among Wolves. ostfilm.de.
- Naked Among Wolves. progress-film.de.
- Bruno Apitz und sein Roman "Nackt unter Wölfen". A report by Mitteldeutscher RundfunkMitteldeutscher RundfunkMitteldeutscher Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt...
, including television interviews with Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
and Stefan Jerzy ZweigStefan Jerzy ZweigStefan Jerzy Zweig is an author and cameraman and is known as the Buchenwald child from the novel by Bruno Apitz, Naked Among Wolves. He survived Buchenwald concentration camp at age four by being protected by his father and other prisoners.- Early years :Stefan Jerzy Zweig lived with his parents,...
. - "Nackt unter Wölfen” kommt in die Kinos. Original newsreel footage about the film from 1963 presented by Rundfunk Berlin-BrandenburgRundfunk Berlin-BrandenburgRundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg is an institution under public law for the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, situated in Berlin and Potsdam...
. - Nackt unter Wölfen at Filmportal.de
- Shadows and Sojourners: Images of Jews and Antifascism in East German Film.
- Frank Beyer: Das Buchenwald-Kind - die wahre Geschichte.
- Nackt unter Wölfen. defa-sternstunden.de.
- Naked Among Wolves at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.