Walking with the Enemy

''Walking with the Enemy'' is a 2014 American action drama film directed by Mark Schmidt, and scripted by Kenny Golde and Mark Schmidt. The film stars Jonas Armstrong, Ben Kingsley, Simon Kunz, Hannah Tointon, Simon Dutton, Burn Gorman, and Charles Hubbell. It is inspired by the true story of Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum.

Set in Budapest and nearby villages, it depicts the German occupation of Hungary during the final months of the Second World War. The story is about a young Hungarian-Jewish man, Elek Cohen (played by Jonas Armstrong), who dons an SS uniform to pose as an officer to find out the fate of his family and to rescue fellow Jews from the Holocaust.

Plot

On the eve of the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, as Nazi presence and anti-Semitic laws increase in Budapest, Jewish radio repair shop owner József (Simon Kunz) sends home the two young men who work for him, Elek Cohen (Jonas Armstrong) and Ferenc Jacobson ( Mark Wells). They obtain forged baptismal certificates from a Catholic priest and urge their families to use them to escape Hungary when they themselves are forced to join the Hungarian labour service, in which Jewish men are brutally treated, shot if they cannot keep up or are injured while doing work.

Meanwhile, Carl Lutz ( William Hope) runs the Swiss diplomatic office at the Glass House in Budapest. Supposedly, anyone with a Swiss passport can safely leave Hungary for Switzerland. He was given permission to issue 8,000 passes to individual Jews, but he interpreted this to mean families, and printed and numbered the passes accordingly.

When Elek and Ferenc escape from the Labour Service, they find their way back home and discover their families have been sent away. Elek's home has been ransacked, and he finds the baptismal certificates taped to the back of a family photo that he saves. Meanwhile, Horthy secretly negotiates with Stalin for an armistice with the Allies, but the Nazis learn of this, abduct his son, storm the Buda Castle and he is overthrown, later to be imprisoned in Germany. In his place, the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party assumes power, led by Ferenc Szálasi, who collaborate with the Nazis in rounding up Jews.

On instinct, Elek and Ferenc start to do whatever they can to save Jewish families and eventually begin to work with Lutz. Before the Nazis focused on eliminating the Jews from Hungary, Elek met a Jewish girl named Hannah (Hannah Tointon). One evening some time later, Nazi officers follow her to where many Jews, including Elek, are hiding. Elek kills them before they can rape Hannah. Later Elek, who speaks fluent German, and Ferenc dig up the bodies of the Nazi officers and take their uniforms. For months their fearless impersonation of SS officers allows them to pretend to round up Jews for transport while saving thousands by redirecting them to safe houses. Once there, in care of the Swiss (and in at least one case a convent), the Jews begin their journey to freedom.

The story ends at the Siege of Budapest and the Russian army defeat the occupying Nazis. Elek is shot by an SS lieutenant when his son leaves a group of captured Jews to hug him and calls him by name. The lieutenant is killed in turn by the German commander tired of him disobeying orders.

As an epitaph the story jumps thirteen years, to 1958. Elek junior has emigrated to New York City and is shown at the wedding of his adopted son.

; Postscript

This movie was inspired by true events and the movie postscripts read: "This film was inspired by the courage of Pinchas Rosenbaum whose passports and rescue missions saved thousands of lives. His family was murdered in Auschwitz along with 500,000 Hungarian Jews. SS Lt. Colonel Otto Skorzeny surrendered to the US Army. After trials and reprieves, he died in 1975. Dieter Wisliceny was hanged in 1948 for war crimes. Ferenc Szalasi was hanged in 1946 for war crimes and high treason. Arrow Cross Captain Kovarcz was hanged in 1946 for war crimes. Adolf Eichmann