The Holocaust, slavery, and the World Wars are examples of horrible events that led people to be in situations which they had to do certain things they were not so proud of. Knowingly committing these wrongful acts to avoid danger or risk is called willful ignorance. In the movie, Counterfeiters: a movie based on the Holocaust, various characters had to use willful ignorance to survive. Although willful ignorance was not the best option, they consider the pro’s and con’s of everyone making sacrifices. Ultimately, the decisions made by the various characters of the Counterfeiter’s resulted in survival yet along the way, made them feel as if they were shameful and criminals.
Many of the characters throughout the film used their willful ignorance by doing something illegal just to survive in the future. The Jews were being used as counterfeiters to make the Dollar for the German Nazi’s. One of the main characters, Sali, knew that this was the only option for everyone or else they would be killed. If everyone used their willful ignorance, they would all have a chance at survival and at the end of it all, survival was the biggest key. Sali and Burger have many disagreements on printing the dollar because Burger did not want to contribute to helping the Nazi’s. Yet Sali used the biggest advantage, “We’re alive. That’s worth a hell of a lot...Our shitty
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There are various pro’s and con’s to using willful ignorance where in the Counterfeiter’s, the advantage would be surviving and the disadvantage was not being comfortable with doing dishonest acts. The film exposes both sides to willful ignorance by showing the contrast of characters, Sali and Burger. Sali, being the one who wanted to print the dollar and keep them alive for as long as possible in comparison to Burger, who wanted to delay the dollar knowing it was