The Champion of Auschwitz

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski was a well known Polish boxer before the war. He is in the first transport sent to Auschwitz in 1940 and given the number 77. An SS man in the camp learns his history and arranges a fight. When Pietrzykowski wins he is given food, and he gives the food away. Maciej Barczewski directs, in his first feature. Piotr Głowacki plays Pietrzykowski. The story is real. He fought many times in the camp, won most of them, and survived the war; his account was later recorded and the case is known in Poland. The film's interest is not sport but the internal economy of the camp. The fights are staged as entertainment and the winner receives extra rations; what Pietrzykowski does is refuse to keep them. From that the film builds survival as a collective rather than an individual matter. The image is kept close to colourless and the camp was rebuilt in accordance with the actual layout of Auschwitz. The film falls partway into the trap that catches most productions of this kind, the heroic narrative, and the camp itself stays largely in the background. Who it is for: viewers interested in Second World War drama and survival stories drawn from real events. Who it is not for: violence and death are shown directly, the narrative does not leave the template, and the fight scenes repeat.