Plot Synopsis:
Edith, a 14 year-old Jewish girl living in Paris under German occupation, is led away with her family to a concentration camp. A sympathetic prisoner working in the infirmary saves her life by giving her a new identity as "Nicole," a thief (and non-Jew) who has just died. However, she is shattered when she witnesses her parents being led away for extermination. Now determined to survive at any cost, she succeeds at getting transferred to a labor camp and improves her status there by prostituting herself to SS officers. Over time, she is promoted to the position of kapo and her soul hardens. When Sascha, a Russian prisoner of war, arrives at the camp, the two fall in love and a sense of altruism is reawakened in her. Seeing that little time is left for the prisoners at the camp, she agrees to collaborate on a risky escape plan. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers).