Inspired by true events, an Austrian concentration camp survivor who has escaped the clutches of a sadistic comandante is trained as a U.S. Army O.S.S. interrogator only to be captured at the Battle of the Bulge by the same comandante who tortured him.

SYNOPSIS:

Viennese engineering student George Feldman has escaped Dachau and its brutal commandant Carl Bruns who nearly killed him. Only a scholarship offer letter secures his release: as long as he leaves his country and family behind. After George makes his way to America, the Office of Strategic Services recruits him for his German language skills into a top-secret military intelligence course ensconced in Maryland’s Allegheny Mountains. He quickly earns the friendship of three other Jewish classmates: the controlling Viktor, the reckless Murray and the thoughtful Kurt.

George excels as a natural learner in the classroom where memorization of German Army details and mapping surveillance come easy. That confidence is quickly shattered when the training transitions to hand-to-hand combat--where his slight build betrays him--and marksmanship--that exposes his tepidness and inexperience with handling firearms.

On an overnight training mission, George shares his prior life in Vienna where when he was arrested on Kristallnacht and sent to the Dachau work camp. George then guides his group back to base in record time. Confidence restored, he nails his interrogation test, improves his hand-to-hand combat skills and earns an “expert marksmanship” award. George and the others pass the course and are shipped out to the European Theater of Operations.

After the D-Day invasion, George and the others are assigned to the Belgian Ardennes Forest where they are captured by none other than Carl Bruns, now commanding a German Army battalion. Bruns singles out Kurt and Murray as “Jews from Berlin “and are summarily executed. George and Viktor are spared only because they had changed their names and altered their dog tags. Now a prisoner of war, George is assigned to Bruns’ office. Only then does Bruns recognize George, who fends him off long enough until American forces arrive on the scene.

After Germany is defeated, George testifies against Bruns who is convicted and sentenced to death. Viktor arranges a last-minute visit between the two men in Bruns’ jail cell. George achieves retribution as a member of the firing squad that executes Bruns.

RITCHIE BOY