Fritz Weaver (Josef Weiss), Rosemary Harris (Berta Weiss), James Woods (Karl Weiss), Meryl Streep (Inga Weiss), Michael Moriarty (Erik Dorf), Joseph Bottoms (Rudi Weiss), Tovah Feldshuh (Helena), Sam Wanamaker (Moses Weiss), Ian Holm (Heinrich Himmler), David Warner (Reinhard Heydrich), Lee Montague (Uncle Sasha), Marius Goring (Heinrich Palitz), Blanche Bake (Anna Weiss), Deborah Norton (Marta Dorf), Robert Stephens (Kurt Dorf), Michael Beck (Hans Helms), Tom Bell (Adolf Eichmann), Ian Holm (Heinrich Himmler), Lee Montague (Uncle Sasha), George Rose (Franz Lowy), David Warner (Reinhard Heydrich), Sean Arnold (Hoefle), Isolde Barth (Eva), Peter Capell (Seder Man), Ulli Chivall (Vanya), John Collin (Rahm), David Daker (Rudolf Hoess), Vernon Dobtcheff (Karp), Peter Garell (Yuri), Edward Gilkrist (Peter Dorf), Klaus Guth (Barski), Ernst Hausknost (Auschwitz Sergeant), Courtney Hill (Laura Dorf), Helmut Janatsch (Pfannensteil), Hanna Lessing (Sofia Alatri), Jeremy Levy (Aaron Feldman), T.P. McKenna (Blobel), Rudolf Melichar (Anton), Hans Meyer (Ernst Kaltenbrunner), Elvira Neustaedtl (Auschwitz Kapo), Irene Prador (Maria Kalova), George Pravda (Otto Felscher), Osman Ragheb (Levin), Murray Salem (Analavitz), Cyril Shaps (Weinberg), Bob Sherman (Cassidy), Gabor Vernon (Rabbi Samuel), Peter Vogel (Emil Frey), Peter Weihs (Sacristan)

Dorf asks for a transfer back to Berlin, which is denied. His wife reassures him that what he is doing is right. Dorf tours Auschwitz and observes the murder of Jews in the gas chambers. Dr. Weiss is caught saving Jews from the transport trains by falsely claiming they have contagious illnesses. He and Berta are sent to Auschwitz. Rudi is injured when the partisans attack a German barracks. Karl learns Inga is pregnant, just before he is sent to Auschwitz.

Moses and the Zionists start the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Berta and the women of her barracks are gassed. After three weeks of resistance, the Uprising is suppressed. Moses and the survivors are shot to death. Dorf learns his uncle is protecting Jews on a road construction project. Dorf has them all, including Dr. Weiss, sent to the gas chamber. Most of the partisans, including Helena, are killed during a botched attack on German troops. Rudi is sent to Sobibór death camp. He escapes during the Sobibór uprising.

As Auschwitz is evacuated, Karl is found dead in his barracks, slumped over one final sketch. Dorf is captured by the United States Army. Told he will be tried for war crimes, he says he was only following orders. Confronted by photographic evidence of the atrocities, he commits suicide by taking a cyanide pill. Rudi finds Inga in Theresienstadt after its liberation. She introduces him to her baby with Karl. She has named him Josef, after Dr. Weiss. She shows Rudi Karl’s drawings, which she hid from the SS. They are to be given to a museum in Prague as a record of the Holocaust for future generations. Rudi joins a group smuggling Jewish orphans into Palestine.