Black Book

In 1944, Dutch Jewish singer Rachel Stein is hiding in the occupied Netherlands, moving between safe spots as the country tightens under Nazi rule. When the farmhouse where she has been sheltered is destroyed by an Allied bomber, she seeks help from a lawyer named Smaal who has aided her family. He arranges for her to escape to the liberated southern part of the country, and with the help of a man named Van Gein, Rachel is reunited with her family and boards a boat carrying other refugees toward safety. The voyage turns deadly as the German SS ambushes the refugees, killing many and robbing the bodies. Rachel is the sole survivor, yet she cannot break free from the grips of the occupied territories.

Using a non-Jewish alias, Ellis de Vries, Rachel becomes involved with a resistance group in The Hague, led by [Gerben Kuipers] (not linked) and working closely with a doctor Hans Akkermans. Smaal remains in touch with this Resistance cell, weaving a web of contacts that keeps hope alive as danger closes in. When Kuipers’s son and other resistance members are captured, Ellis agrees to push the mission forward by seducing local SD commander Ludwig Müntze. During a party at SD headquarters, Ellis recognizes Obersturmführer Günther Franken, Müntze’s brutal deputy, as the officer who oversaw the massacre on the boat. She secures a job at the SD HQ while gradually falling for Müntze, who, unlike Franken, treats her with a rare measure of respect and trust once he realizes she is Jewish—yet he does not let that prejudice determine his actions.

A hidden microphone that Ellis plants in Franken’s office yields crucial intelligence: the Resistance learns that Van Gein has betrayed Rachel and the others. In response, Akkermans decides, against Kuipers’s orders, to abduct Van Gein in an effort to expose the traitor. The operation goes awry, and Van Gein is killed. Franken responds with a brutal plan to spray 40 hostages—including most of the plotters—with death, but Müntze recognizes that the war is lost and countermands the order, setting off a dangerous chain of events. Müntze pressures Ellis to tell her story fully, and with her testimony, he confronts Franken with a superior officer, Oberstgruppenführer Käutner—who expects a confession to justify a harsh punishment. The safe that Franken guards contains no valuables, and Franken then reveals to Käutner that Müntze has been negotiating with the Resistance for a truce. The discovery lands Müntze in prison, condemned to death.

The Resistance hatches a rescue plan to free their imprisoned comrades, and Ellis agrees to cooperate only if Müntze can be freed as well. The operation is betrayed, and when the rescuers reach the cells, they find them filled with German troops. Akkermans and one other man manage to slip away, but Ellis is arrested and taken to Franken’s office. He uses the moment to stage a confrontation that leads Kuipers and his fellow Resistance members to believe Ellis is the collaborator responsible for the botched rescue. A Dutch confidant, Ronnie, who works at the SD headquarters, secretly helps Ellis and Müntze escape.

With the country liberated by the Allies, Franken makes a final escape attempt by boat but is killed by Akkermans, who claims the Jewish loot for himself. Suspecting Smaal as the traitor, Müntze and Ellis return to confront him. Smaal insists on going to Canadian authorities and tries to deflect their questions by showing a “black book” that supposedly records all dealings with Jews. Before they can leave, Smaal and his wife are killed by an unknown assailant. Müntze chases Smaal into the street and is arrested by Canadian soldiers when the crowd recognizes him as a German officer still under a death warrant. Ellis is also arrested for collaboration but is later vindicated by Canadian intelligence, aided by the evidence in Smaal’s black book.

The turning point arrives when Akkermans, now a colonel in the Dutch Army, is revealed to be the agent tied to the earlier betrayals. He shows Ellis the valuables recovered from the Jewish victims and confirms Müntze’s fate: he is executed by a firing squad under military law. Ellis awakens to a shocking truth about Akkermans and realizes that Akkermans himself has manipulated events to his advantage. In a dramatic climb to freedom, Ellis, with Akkermans distracted by a cheering crowd, jumps from a balcony and escapes, leaving the would-be traitor behind.

Ellis works with Canadian military intelligence and Kuipers to clear her name, using Smaal’s black book to prove that many Jews were already taken for medical help by Akkermans just before their murders. The two tail Akkermans, hiding in a coffin inside a hearse laden with money and valuables. They overpower the driver and drive toward Hollands Diep, where the original trap had been sprung, waiting for Akkermans to meet his end as the criminals are corralled by the pursuing crowd.

The final scene leaps forward to Israel in 1956, where Rachel Stein is now a wife and mother of two. She and her family walk toward Kibbutz Stein, a community founded with funds traced back to recovered money from Jews killed during the war, a sobering reminder of the brutal costs of the Holocaust. As they settle into their tranquil routine, the distant sounds of explosions and the urgent call of sirens cut through the serenity, and Israeli soldiers take their positions at the front, underscoring that the echoes of that era still reverberate through generations.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:43