Best movies like Varian's War: The Forgotten Hero
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Varian Fry rescues more than 2,000 artists from Nazi persecution during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 896
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA, Canada
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Varian's War: The Forgotten Hero (2001):
Similar in 76%
The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1960, the story follows the efforts of the Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service, to find former SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann, who ran from Germany to Argentina and took the name Ricardo Clement. He was wanted for the murders of both Europeans and Jews during the Holocaust. Learning of Eichmann's living in Argentina, the Mossad sends a team to capture him, led by agent Peter Malkin. The standing order: bring Eichmann back alive to Israel for trial.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 783
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, Argentina
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Haven (2001)
Plot Summary:
This is the true story of a woman named Ruth Gruber who travels to Europe to help escort 1000 Jewish War victims to the United States. She comes to love and feel sorry for them all, and fights for their rights to live in America.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 514
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, disturbing, serious, captivating, realistic, crying, uplifting
Similar in 75%
Nina's House (2005)
Plot Summary:
Starting in 1944 in the wake of the Liberation and continuing into the '60s, 'houses of hope' were established to lend a semblance of continuity to youngsters orpahaned by the war. Nina's Home takes place between September 1944 and January 1946 in an orphanage housed in a chateau outside Paris. At the outset, the country residence is run by Nina who has a core population of French Jewish children whose parents are probably dead. Food is scarce. News of the Concentration Camps hasn't hit yet, but some months later, a contingent of youths arrive form the liberated camps. The children are a disparate, wild, damaged group and conflicts ensue. Nina's challenge is to help them make their first delicate moves toward the future and in the process restore all of them, including herself, to life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, bleak, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Hidden Children (2004)
Plot Summary:
This is a true story about forty Jewish children on their way to Palestine, who were blocked by the German and Italian occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941. Before finding a haven at Villa Emma in Nonantola in northern Italy, where they arrived on June 17, 1942, the children spent several adventurous months in Slovenia, caught up in the ongoing fight between the partisans and the Italian army. In April 1943, another 33 children, some from the Balkans, others from France, joined the original group. All were orphans who had lost their parents in concentration camps and had subsequently been smuggled out of Germany by Recha Freier, a well-known Zionist. The group ranged in age from six to twenty one and settled in at Villa Emma with their chaperones and teachers, Josef Indig, Marco Schoky and the pianist Boris Jochverdson.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, sentimental, emotional, bleak, serious, realistic, road movie
Similar in 78%
Brothers War (2009)
Plot Summary:
The story is set in the latter days of World War 2, against the backdrop of fierce combat on the eastern front. Brother's War is based on real events.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 890
Genere: History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak
Similar in 82%
Auschwitz (2011)
Plot Summary:
Auschwitz is a hard-hitting war film which shows life as it really was at the death camp.
IMDB Rating: 3.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, Germany
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, tense, serious, postmodern, controversial, gloomy
Similar in 89%
The Round Up (2010)
Plot Summary:
1942. Joseph is eleven. And this June morning, he must go to school, a yellow star sown on his chest. He receives the support of a goods dealer. The mockery of a baker. Between kindness and contempt, Jo, his Jewish friends, their families, learn of life in an occupied Paris, on the Butte Montmartre, where they've taken shelter. At least that's what they think, until that morning on July 16th 1942, when their fragile happiness is toppled over.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, Germany, Hungary
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic, sincere, touching, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Wall (1982)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic re-enactment of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish uprising in April 1943 were 650 armed members of the Jewish Fighting Organization of Poland held off a 3,000 strong Nazi force in which only a handful of Jews survived. Tom Conti plays Dolek Berson, a Jewish smuggler who joins the resistance movement and is aided on the Aryan side of the wall by a former teacher named Regina Kowalski played by Rachel Roberts in her final role.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Action, War, Drama
Country: Poland, USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Ghetto (2005)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, in Vilna, the Nazi annihilate 55,000 Jews and squeeze the 15,000 survivors in a seven blocks ghetto. The twenty-two year old sadistic commander Kittel is assigned to administrate the ghetto in the capital of Lithuania, becoming the master of life or death. When he finds the gorgeous Hayyah sneaking with one kilo of beam stolen from the German army, he sentences her to death; but when he is informed that she was a former successful singer, he decides to activate the old theater and promote shows in the ghetto. The Jew Chief of Police Gens uses the theater and a sewing factory to save as much lives as he can; in his ambiguous position, he kills Jews to save lives of others.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: History, War
Country: Germany, Lithuania
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, realistic, emotional, rough, suspense, sad, captivating
Similar in 83%
Süskind (2012)
Plot Summary:
In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Walter Süskind is a member of the Dutch Jewish Council who rescues hundreds of children from the concentration camps.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 84%
Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man (2002)
Plot Summary:
It is the real story of Giorgio Perlasca (Luca Zingaretti). During the 1920s he was an Italian Fascist supporter, fighting in Africa an in the Spanish civil war where he deserved a safe conduct for Spanish embassies. After some years, disillusioned by fascism, he is a fresh supplier for the Italian army. In the war years he is in Budapest for his business. He lives an easy life there, well introduced into the Hungarian high society, without any problem coming from the war situation. When the Nazi occupied Hungary, in 1944, instead to leave (Italy had already surrendered to the Allies) he escaped to the Spanish embassy in Budapest using his old safe conduct and becoming a Spanish citizen, changing name into Jorge Perlasca. He starts working as a diplomat here. When Sanz Briz (Geza Tordy), the Spanish consul, is removed, Perlasca immediately substitutes him, like if he was officially appointed from Spanish authorities... Written by 1felco.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, France, Sweden, Hungary
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: disturbing, uplifting, serious, emotional, captivating, realistic, epic
Similar in 83%
The Empty Mirror (1996)
Plot Summary:
Adolf Hitler faces himself and must come to terms with his infamous career in an imaginary post-war subterranean bunker where he reviews historical films, dictates his memoirs and encounters Eva Braun, Josef Goebbels, Hermann Göring and Sigmund Freud.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 351
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, surreal, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of the senior-level preparations for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 from the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower's appointment as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, to the establishment of the beachhead in Normandy. The film recounts many of the trials and tribulation Ike had to face, not the least of which were the many prima donnas surrounding him (Patton, Montgomery and especially de Gaulle) and the need for tact and diplomacy to bring all sides together for what would be the largest amphibious assault ever attempted.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, political
Similar in 87%
The Aryan Couple (2004)
Plot Summary:
A WWII Drama about a German/Jewish industrialist who, in order to ensure his family's safe passage out of Germany, is forced to hand over his business to the Nazis.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, suspenseful, tense, realistic, gloomy, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 89%
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009)
Plot Summary:
Irena Sendler is a Catholic social worker who has sympathized with the Jews since her childhood, when her physician father died of typhus contracted while treating poor Jewish patients. When she initially proposes saving Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, her idea is met with skepticism by fellow workers, her parish priest, and even her own mother Janina.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: USA, Latvia, Poland, Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, suspense, tense, retro, biblical, intense, period piece, gloomy
Similar in 89%
In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997)
Plot Summary:
In the Warsau Ghetto of 1943, one man's struggle to keep his family together leads him to the ultimate crisis of faith, and one final chance at redemption. Written by legendary 'Twilight Zone' creator, Rod Sterling.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Uprising (2001)
Plot Summary:
Jews rise up in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis in 1943.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: uplifting, captivating, rough, serious, political, tense, bleak, emotional, realistic, independent film
Similar in 76%
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
Plot Summary:
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His diplomatic status in a Catholic country prevents Colonel Kappler from openly arresting him, but O'Flaherty's activities become so large that the Nazi's decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican. O'Flaherty continues his work in a variety of disguises. Based on a true story. Written by John Vogel.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK, Italy
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: realistic, factual, tense, serious, suspenseful, christian film, psychological, captivating, period piece, spiritual
Similar in 87%
Escape from Sobibor (1987)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow (actually threaten) that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were its captives, the Jewish laborers that had been spared from the ovens, knew that they were on borrowed time and that their only hope was to escape... the only question was how to do it. On October 14, 1943, members of the camp's underground resistance succeeded in covertly killing eleven German officers and a number of Ukrainian guards. Of the 600 inmates in the camp, roughly 300 escaped, although most were later re-captured and killed. The escape forced the Nazis to close the death camp, dismantling it and planting a forest.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, rough, serious, suspenseful, psychological, exciting, thought provoking, suspense, philosophical
Similar in 89%
The Edelweiss Pirates (2004)
Plot Summary:
Im Kölner Stadtteil Ehrenfeld lebt eine Gruppe von Arbeiterkindern kurz vor Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs ihren ganz eigenen Alltag. Die selbsternannten „Edelweißpiraten“ träumen von einer gerechten Welt und sehnen sich nach der unbeschwerten Vergangenheit. Sie rebellieren gegen das Naziregime. (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelwei%C3%9Fpiraten_(Film)).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 565
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, serious, independent film
Similar in 89%
Massacre in Rome (1973)
Plot Summary:
In the Nazi occupied city of Rome, an assault on an SS brigade draws retaliation from the military governship. "Massacre in Rome" is the true story of how this partisan attack led to the mass execution of Italian nationals under the orders of SS-Lieutenant Colonel Kappler.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 85%
DC 9/11: Time of Crisis (2003)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of the days directly after 9/11, and the president's whereabouts. Scheduled to air shortly before the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, DC 9/11 takes an inside look at the Bush Administration, beginning with the day of the attacks, and following the President's journey to Ground Zero, culminating with his now famous national address nine days after the attacks.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 942
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, sincere, emotional, realistic, political drama
Similar in 88%
Saviors in the Night (2009)
Plot Summary:
Drama, based on the book "Retter in der Nacht", in which Marga Spiegel tells her memories: In Westfalia of 1943 Marga Spiegel, her husband and her daughter are about to be deported. Yet westfalian farmers help the jewish family, grant Marga and her daughter refuge under false names and hide her husband.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 77%
Beyond the Front Line (2004)
Plot Summary:
A movie based on real wartime diaries tells the story of the Swedish speaking Finns' infantry regiment 61. The story follows the regiment during the Continuation War from 1942 to 1944 and from Syväri to the Karelian Isthmus where they faced some of the most grueling battles against the Soviet Union.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, tense
Similar in 86%
Out of the Ashes (2003)
Plot Summary:
The real-life story of Gisella Perl, a Jewish Hungarian doctor imprisoned in the notorious Auschwitz death camp of World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, bleak, captivating, emotional, contemplative, uplifting
Similar in 84%
The Grey Zone (2001)
Plot Summary:
A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkomando Jews – who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow-Jews – find themselves in a moral grey zone.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, disturbing, factual, emotional, harsh, compassionate, serious, realistic, heartbreaking
Similar in 80%
Texas '46 (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story its the untold story of Italian World War II POW"S in Jan 1946. Luca Zingaretti stars as one of over 50,000 Italian Prisoners of War detained at POW camps in the U.S. Roy Schneider stars as Colonel Gartner, the Commander of the camp. Things take a turn for the worse when Manin is brought back from his most recent escape by a patrol force, only to realize that the camp has been evacuated while he was gone. Gartner is forced to keep Manin at the camp until another patrol force can come pick him up. However, no one ever comes. The phone lines get cut, and the two men realize they are completely isolated from the outside world. It is up to each man now to escape the camp.An untold and rarely known fact of US held Italian POW"S.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, Italy
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, exciting, bleak, serious, captivating
Similar in 90%
The Hiding Place (1975)
Plot Summary:
The Hiding Place is an account of a Dutch family who risk their lives by offering a safe haven for Jews during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: christian film, bleak, spiritual, independent film, sincere, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 81%
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988)
Plot Summary:
During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Otto Frank decides to hide his family, who are Jewish, after his daughter Margot is called to appear for transport to a Nazi labour camp. Miep Gies, Otto Frank's office assistant hides them in the attic above the office. The film tells the true story of Gies' struggle to keep the family hidden and safe, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down. Based upon Gies' memoirs and Anne Frank's famous diary.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Conspiracy (2001)
Plot Summary:
The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Lead by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political, factual, bleak, disturbing, atmospheric, intense, suspense, realistic, historical drama, non fiction