Süskind

I just watched this movie at the preview in Amsterdam and I felt really touched by this rather unknown and miraculous story on the holocaust in The Netherlands. In this story members of the Amsterdam Jewish Council together with the student resistance organized the escape and hiding of 600 children from the Nazis. Although I had heard the story many times from my mother (she was actually one of the children's nurses working at the Jewish nursery and involved in smuggling the infant's and young children out of the guarded building), most particular I was very impressed by the story as depicted by director Rudolf van den Berg. Of course the storyline was partly the directors interpretation of the factual happenings, however this was not disturbing at all and made the personality of Süskind coming alive without becoming to sentimental. At the end of this two hour movie, during the movie credits, the audience was quit and stunned and many could barely keep their eyes dry which was most probably intensified by the end score beautifully performed by violinist Janine Jansen.

The acting in the movie was very good. In particular Jeroen Spitsenberger gave a great performance as Walter Süskind, however Austrian actor Karl Markovic outplays him in a brilliant role as the compulsive and lonely SS-commandant Aus der Fünten. His character is convincing from his first appearance on. Were there any (minor) issues on this movie? Yes, is was not shot at the original location in Amsterdam but in Romania which is understandable since a lot has been changed but still impacted the credibility of the movie at this point somehow. Also the scene where nurse Fanny escapes deportation at the railway station looked very similar to the one in Schindler's List where Stern is released from the train.

All together Süskind is, despite a few minor errors, an outstanding movie on WW2. The fact that this movie is based on a factual and miraculous story makes it even more a must seen about a story which should be told. Even after a few days, the movie made a lot of impression to me and I therefore could warmly recommend it to everyone interested in WW2 history.