When Salomon Sorowitsch blithely suggests, in 1936 Berlin, that Jews are always persecuted "because they refuse to adapt," he has no idea of the accommodations he will have to make.

In the Oscar-winning movie "The Counterfeiters," the man nicknamed Sally (Karl Markovics) is a forger, counterfeiter and, lastly, artist. "Why earn money by making art? Earning money by making money is much easier," he says.

But he ends up making money, literally, for the Germans from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp that has imported prisoners with the skills to fake identification papers and passports and -- more important -- produce perfect British pounds and, later, U.S. dollars. They want to flood the world with bogus bills and destroy the British economy.

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'The Conterfeiters'

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Karl Markovics, August Diehl.
• Rating: R for some strong violence, brief sexuality/nudity and language. In German, Russian, English and Hebrew, with subtitles.
• Web site: 'The Counterfeiters'

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Make no mistake about it, these men were not free (they could be shot at any moment and one odious officer urinates on Sally as he's scrubbing a bathroom floor) but they were given bunks with clean sheets, suit jackets to wear over their uniforms and, as a bizarre reward, a ping-pong table.

In return, however, they live with the knowledge that the Nazis who murdered their wives and children are benefitting from their enterprise. And that there are unseen prisoners behind a wooden fence who are, they are told, forced to walk in too-small shoes with sandbags on their back, often until they die.

The counterfeiters exist in what one calls a "golden cage." They are valued only for their skills as printers, bankers or craftsmen, and if they don't master the dollar, five of them will be killed.

Although some dramatic license has been taken, "The Counterfeiters" is based on the true-life book "The Devil's Workshop" by Adolf Burger, who becomes a secondary character here played with fiery resistance by August Diehl. A printer, he refuses to buckle under, even though his moral stand could cost others their lives.

Can Sally -- a character based on a Russian Jewish artist and forger actually named Salomon Smolianoff -- adapt enough to save himself or his fellow prisoners? By simply staying alive, is he defeating his captors?

"The Counterfeiters," written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, tells a story so farfetched that you wouldn't believe it unless it were true. It forces us to ask: Would we sabotage the operation or choose survival? Even if it saves a life, is any sort of bargaining with the devil ever justified?

Austrian actor Markovics, slightly reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart (with a less handsome poker face and the shrunken shape of a malnourished prisoner), makes Sally a fascinating figure. He's a man with canny negotiating skills, strong work ethic, a pragmatic approach to life and, eventually, a sorrow that seeps through his pores.

This movie about the greatest counterfeiting scheme in history leaves some questions about the fate of the cash and the principals unanswered, but it arrives at the Manor Theater with Oscar's stamp of approval. Justifiably so.