Chris Moffatt
Professor Char Miller
Government 490: Technology of Money
Short Paper #4 Movie Review
The Counterfeiters is a 2007 film written and directed by Austrian director, Stefan Ruzowitzky, which was based on the memoirs written by Jewish concentration camp survivor Adolf Burger. Burger wrote about his experiences as a money counterfeiter working on a secret Nazi project, Operation Bernhard, which was intended to undermine the British economy. The Counterfeiters is received high praise from film critics, winning an Academy Award for best foreign language film and various other awards from international film festivals. Two compelling themes in the film that will be focused on throughout this review is the notion that the value of Salli’s labor to the Nazi’s is the sole reason for his survival, and Salli’s frivolous, risky gambling because money is even more fictitious to him than anyone else as he has the ability to create it.
Before it becomes clear that there is a functional application of Salli’s artistic talents to help the overarching agenda of the Nazi regime, he is facing the same cruel fortune of so many European Jews during the Third Reich. A life in a concentration camp was nothing more than a promise of a difficult life and harder death. Salli’s artistic ability started earning him the attention of the guards and eventually got separated from the general concentration camp population and put into a group dedicated to counterfeiting foreign currencies. This sort of promotion echoes two ideas in political theory that seem to hold well in capitalism, the first being Adam Smith’s belief that the definition of wealth is labor, and Locke’s theory of property where he claims that we own our labor and the fruits of our labor.
Salli was of no value to the Nazi’s until they appreciated the significance of his artistic talent, his labor. Once his labor could be applied to a higher agenda, he became more valuable as a human. His skilled labor literally saved his life; it could not be any more valuable.
Locke believed the smartest, most talented and hardest working people would live the best lives, enjoying the gifts of the world that god provided. Locke maintained that we own our labor, and therefore we own the fruits of our labor. Talent, ambition and intelligence will transcend social distinctions, and those people will enjoy the fruits of live. In capitalistic countries there is a widely held belief that anyone who is willing to work hard will be able to live a good life. The Nazi regime was treated like a business, and Salli’s labor could potentially benefit the bottom line. The contradiction between his loyalty to fellow camp prisoners and his own personal ambitions resemble the blurred line between ethical behavior and monetary or social success.
Toward the end of the movie Salli gambles purposely gambles away frivolous amounts of money and explains to the female that there is always more money. This scene represents the fictitious nature of money in the most overt sense. Salli’s can literally create money through counterfeit, but I cannot help but see a parallel to the invented and socially accepted tale of money. Salli’s example does not use credit, debts or interest rates, but instead the recreation of tangible yet worthless pieces of paper.
This was a great movie, and one that I would certainly recommend to others. Director Stefan Ruzowitzky and Adolf Burger deserve all of the praise they have received for this film, based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor.