The Aryan Couple, directed by John Daly, is a fictional account of an episode that might have happened in the 1944 occupied Hungary where the film takes place, presumably near the town of Györ. Josef Krauzenberg (played by Martin Landau) has agreed to sign over the assets of his industrial-financial empire and personal property, including a vast art collection, to Heinrich Himmler (played by Danny Webb), the SS Reichsführer. In exchange, Himmler promises Krauzenberg and his thirty or so relatives, including his wife Rachel (played by Judy Parfitt), safe conduct to Switzerland in a journey that will end in Palestine, thus overriding the objections of Adolf Eichmann (played by Steve Mackintosh), the author of the Final Solution. However, Krauzenberg has some three thousand employees at his headquarters in Hungary and two servants at his country estate. The servants, Ingrid and Hans Vassmann (played by Caroline Carver and Kenny Doughty), pretend to be an Aryan couple, though they are Jews working for the underground. What is to be done with them when the Krauzenberg estate is no longer inhabited? That is the focus of the film, which begins with views of Auchscwitz, a train carrying Jews off to the deathcamps, and then reaches a climax at a dinner at the Krauzenberg estate, where the Krauzenbergs sign documents donating their assets to Himmler. Minutes before the departure of the Krauzenberg family for the airplane to Switzerland the Vassmanns reveal that they are Jewish, named Steinberg. Ingrid begs to go along on the plane, but no such arrangement is possible. Instead, since Himmler has already agreed not to harm any of Krauzenberg's employees, he tries to arrange safe passage for the Steinbergs on a train for Switzerland on the next day. Meanwhile, Eichmann's deputy, Edelhein (played by Christpher Fulford), has taken a fancy to Ingrid. When Edelhein realizes that they are Jewish, he tracks them down and even drives to the German side of the border with Switzerland to stop them. There is more suspense regarding the Steinbergs than the Krauzenbergs. The notion that Himmler might have been so generous is based on the fact that there was a Europa Plan, devised by Slovakian Jews, under which some rich Jews paid ransom for safe conduct to Switzerland and elsewhere beyond the reach of the deathcamps. The film, which flows in a manner similar to a stageplay, is loosely based on the fate of Hungarian Jewish industrialist Manfred Weiss. MH
I
want to comment on this film
