AllMovie

Stalingrad director Joseph Vilsmaier teams with his wife, director and actress Dana Vávrová, for this harrowing look at the journey of three Berlin Jews to the dreaded Auschwitz Concentration Camp at the height of World War II. In 1942, Joseph Goebbles' herded scores of Berlin Jews into the Grunewald Railway Station in Berlin under the pretext of protecting them from air raids. Entire families were crammed into overcrowded freight trucks without food or drink and forced to endure a journey of several days as unsympathetic guards loomed ominously nearby with guns at the ready. It was during this time that many of those unfortunate souls surely began to realize that this voyage was only the beginning of their woes: Passengers such as famous pugilist Henry Neumann, singer Jakob Noschik, and frightened teenager Ruth Zilbermann. Now, as they roll ever closer to their grim destiny at Auschwitz, the only question that remains is who will survive this dreadful ordeal?