The German feature film Block 10 opened in selected cinemas on Nov. 5, bringing the forced sterilization of Jewish women at Auschwitz to the screen. Directed by Marcus O. Rosenmüller and written and produced by Alice Brauner, the film focuses on the women held in the camp’s Block 10 and the doctors forced into the Nazi medical crimes.
The story includes SS physician Carl Clauberg, played by Axel Prahl, and Maximilian Samuel, a Jewish prisoner and gynaecologist portrayed by Christian Berkel. The film depicts Samuel being coerced into assisting the perpetrators through threats against his daughter. Bibiana Beglau plays French doctor Adélaïde Hautval, who refused to help with the forced sterilizations.
Clauberg’s experiments aimed to sterilize women on a mass scale. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum says his work moved to Block 10 in April 1943, where between 150 and 400 Jewish women were held. Complications included infections, bleeding and deaths, according to the museum’s historical account.
A historical drama built from testimony and records
Brauner said the screenplay drew on witness testimonies and trial records. The production also consulted Auschwitz Museum historians and used the museum’s virtual location project to help recreate the camp, the museum said.
The filmmakers chose to portray violence without extensive effects, and the production did not use makeup to simulate shaved heads. Brauner said the team sought to preserve the victims’ dignity. The film’s depiction is a historical drama, not a documentary; its makers acknowledged changing the identity of a victim in one abortion scene to simplify the story.
Block 10 had its world premiere at the Munich Film Festival on July 3, 2026, and was released in Germany with English subtitles. It later received the Rheingold Audience Award at the 2026 German Film Festival in Ludwigshafen.
Nicole French