Plot

In World War II, a Romanian gentile peasant is denounced by the village gendarme and sent to a concentration camp for Jews where, due to an error, he's drafted into the S.S.

During World War II, Johann Moritz (Anthony Quinn), a Romanian gentile peasant, whose pretty wife is lusted after by the village gendarme, is denounced as being Jewish, arrested, and sent to a concentration camp. In the camp, the camp commander mistakes him for a new recruit, a volunteer to the S.S. and he is drafted into the S.S. Ironically, after the war, he is detained by the Allied authorities for his wartime involvement with the S.S.—nufs68

In a small village in Romania, a local police constable frames Johann Moritz (Anthony Quinn) as being Jewish, because his wife Suzanna (Virna Lisi) has refused his advances. He is sent to a concentration camp as punishment. Eventually he is deemed part of the Aryan race and obliged to enlist as an Waffen S.S. soldier. After the war, he is arrested and prosecuted as a war criminal.—AnonymousB

The naive Catholic Romanian peasant Johann Moritz (Anthony Quinn) is happily married to the gorgeous Suzanna (Virna Lisi). Sergeant Dobresco (Grégoire Aslan) is a wolf and lusts after Suzanna, who rejects him. So he includes the name of Johann in the list of Jewish people in the village, and he is sent to a forced labor camp for Jews. Johann explains to the commander that he is not Jewish, while Suzanna unsuccessfully seeks out authorities trying to fix the mistake, but she is forced to divorce Johann to keep their house. Johann finally accepts in joining a group of Jews to escape from the camp to Bulgary. However, he is captured again and sent to a concentration camp. However, the S.S. commander believes there is a mistake since he has the profile of the perfect Aryan and Johann joins the S.S. After the end of the war, he is sent to a prisoner camp and judged in Nuremberg, when he finally knows the fate of Suzanna.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the synopsis written by "nufs68", the main character is described as a "jewish romanian peasant". He is not jewish; he tries many times to prove he isn't, but invane. The story is a series of paradoxes to show how racism, nationalism and dictatorship have ruined the lives of ordinary people in the 20th century.