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"Block 10": the first feature film to use our Virtual Film Location project

The world premiere of the feature film "Block 10", directed by Marcus O. Rosenmüller and written by Dr. Alice Brauner, took place on 3 July at the Munich Film Festival. It is the first production to use the Auschwitz Museum new project "Picture from Auschwitz". It is a virtual film location designed to help filmmakers tell the history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz as faithfully as possible.

The project uses modern 3D scanning technologies to create an original and certified 1:1 digital representation of Auschwitz I. "Picture from Auschwitz" is intended to support the telling of the true history of the camp in film productions without compromising the integrity of the Memorial. The project is being implemented by the Auschwitz Museum in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and technology partners, under the direction of Maciej Żemojcin.

The film "Block 10" tells the story of women prisoners at Auschwitz who were exploited by German SS doctors in criminal medical experiments, primarily sterilisation procedures. At the centre of the story are two German gynaecologists: Dr Carl Clauberg, who conducted sterilisation experiments at Auschwitz, and a Jewish prisoner, Dr Maximilian Samuel, who was forced to take part in the experiments under the threat that his daughter would be murdered.

Based on historical documents and witness testimonies, the film addresses the themes of medical experiments, the dehumanisation of victims, survival, and attempts to preserve human dignity in the extreme conditions of Block 10. Of particular importance is the portrayal of the suffering of the women subjected to the experiments.

Auschwitz Survivor Eva Umlauf, who attended the premiere in Munich, said after the screening: “It was very realistic. I wish many people could see it. Very many, because there are those who disbelieve it. They do not believe what happened there.”

“It was not a Hollywood film where everything is light, beautiful and pleasant, and then we laugh, eat a hamburger and everything is all right. It was a fragment of truth, but the truth is even more terrible, because these are roles played by actors, and now they are crying with us. The actors are crying now,” Eva Umlauf emphasised.

The film’s director, Marcus O. Rosenmüller, stressed that working on "Block 10" was a particularly profound experience for him: “I will say this quite openly: for me as a director, it was the greatest challenge I have faced since I began making films. But I felt that this film was worth making. We tried, with the greatest respect and humanity, to show what was inhuman.”

The screenwriter and producer of the film, Dr Alice Brauner, pointed to the importance of cooperation with the Auschwitz Museum. “The visual materials made available to us, as the first production company granted access to these resources, allowed us to recreate the historical setting with an unprecedented level of authenticity,” she said.

“Beyond the visual dimension, cooperation with the Museum deeply influenced the way the story itself was told. Close work with the Museum’s historians and archivists helped us ensure that every aspect of the film, from the smallest prop to the overall narrative structure, remained as faithful to historical reality as possible. As a historian, screenwriter and producer, I found this exchange invaluable. It enabled us not only to build an accurate image of the past, but also to tell a story rooted in historical truth, respect and responsibility,” Alice Brauner added.

“Cooperation on the film "Block 10" involved access to historical documents, consultation on the script, and the possibility of creating detailed documentation of the interiors of the historic building, which has survived in its original form. The filmmakers’ sense of responsibility was visible on many levels. This applied both to the very careful combination of the recreated interiors of Block 10 with the digital representation of the external spaces, and to the way the story of the experiments carried out there was told,” said Paweł Sawicki, Deputy Spokesman of the Museum.

“The film shows how Nazi ideology deformed the professional ethics of German doctors, and how contemptuously they treated women who became victims of humiliating and painful experiments. It also shows the dramatic moral dilemmas faced by prisoners who were forced to take part in these crimes. What is particularly moving is the great respect with which the filmmakers approached the suffering of the women imprisoned in Block 10, who often did not know what procedures were being performed on them,” Sawicki added.

In his view, no film can convey the full complexity of the history of Auschwitz, but “in this case we can see how such a difficult subject can be approached responsibly: by telling the dramatic stories of the victims while preserving the truth about how Auschwitz functioned.”

According to Maciej Żemojcin, who is responsible for the technical side of the project, proof of its success lies in the fact that people who know the Memorial very well confirm that what appears on screen corresponds to a very high degree with its authentic historical appearance. “We wanted to recreate a specific historical situation faithfully, which is why we consulted historians on the appearance of the site at every stage. We worked down to the level of small details: we determined how large the trees were in a given place, where their shadows fell, and removed those that had not yet existed at the moment being recreated. Our cooperation with the post-production team reached that level of detail,” Żemojcin said.

“The licence to use the digital resources of the "Picture from Auschwitz" project is granted only to productions that approach the historical facts concerning the camp with particular responsibility. One of the conditions for obtaining permission is consultation of the script with the Museum’s team of historians and acceptance of their comments. This approach is intended to support films based on documents and testimonies, while at the same time counteracting simplifications, distortions of history, and the use of Auschwitz merely as a film set. This is very important at a time when the phrase ‘based on facts’ is becoming a convenient excuse for ignoring the truth in feature productions,” emphasised Bartosz Bartyzel, the Spokesman of the Museum.

“The digital reconstruction of Auschwitz has become much more than a film tool. It represents a new way of preserving and communicating history, allowing filmmakers to approach historical storytelling with a level of accuracy, sensitivity and responsibility that was previously impossible,” Alice Brauner stressed.

The first part of the Picture from Auschwitz project covers the digital recreation of the area of the former Auschwitz I camp. Further stages are planned to include Auschwitz II-Birkenau as well. More information is available at film.auschwitz.org.

"Block 10" is a CCC Cinema & Television production, co-produced with MZ-Film, Niama-Film, CCC Filmkunst and ARD Degeto Film. The cast includes Christian Berkel, Axel Prahl, Moritz Führmann, Johannes Zirner, Bibiana Beglau and Talia Dogan. The film’s German theatrical premiere is planned for November 2026.