Susan Strasberg stars as a young Jewish girl sent to Auschwitz, where she witnesses her parents being dragged to the gas chamber. Disguised as a Gentile, she is moved to a work camp where her fight for survival leads her to become a prison guard. Gillo Pontecorvo's film is so audacious, it's believable. Filmed in what looks like bleached out black & white, there are scenes of horror so realistic, they look like newsreel footage. The movie is about the madness of war, what it means to collaborate and the lengths to which a person will go in order to survive. Pontecorvo coaxes an amazing performance out of Strasberg and the great Emmanuelle Riva appears as a fellow inmate. Carlo Rustichelli's music score adds a lot. A brutal, unforgiving film with a decidedly ambiguous ending.