In a New York City nursing home,
Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Zev Guttman, an 89-year-old dementia patient, awakens looking for his wife, Ruth, who died two weeks prior. Another elderly patient and fellow Auschwitz survivor, the incapacitated Max Rosenbaum, reminds Zev of what he promised to do when Ruth died. Max has continually reminded Zev that their families were murdered at the camp by the
Blockführer Otto Wallisch, who was believed to have immigrated to the U.S. under the false name Rudy Kurlander. The
Simon Wiesenthal Center has located four Rudy Kurlanders, but there is no evidence to arrest any of them. Max reminds Zev that they are the only two who can still recognize Wallisch. Max convinces Zev to avenge their families by seeking out and killing Wallisch and provides him written instructions to follow. Zev leaves the nursing home in a taxi and boards a train to
Cleveland as a Silver Alert is issued for his disappearance. He has moments of confusion but he relies on the letter, which reminds him Ruth is dead, and Max arranges his travel. Max directs Zev to a gun shop in Cleveland, where he buys a
Glock 17, and then to the four men in the U.S. and Canada named Rudy Kurlander, one of whom is the former Blockführer. Zev confronts the first Rudy Kurlander, a German veteran of World War II, in his home, but this Kurlander proves that he served in the
North African Campaign and was never near Auschwitz. Zev finds the second Rudy Kurlander in a nursing home in
Hearst,
Ontario, but he turns out to have been a prisoner in Auschwitz also, sent there as a
homosexual, which he proves by showing Zev his arm tattoo. Zev travels to
Boise, and arrives at the house of the third Rudy Kurlander in
Bruneau,
Idaho. His son, John, an
Idaho state trooper, tells Zev that his father died three months ago. John, who thinks Zev is an old friend of his father's from the war, shows him his father's Nazi memorabilia but reveals, after several glasses of whiskey, that his father was only a boy and a cook during the war. When John, who is a
neo-Nazi, sees Zev's tattoo and realizes he is Jewish, he becomes enraged and lets loose his German shepherd, Eva (aptly named after
Eva Braun). Zev shoots the dog and then John in self-defense, collapses in exhaustion on John's bed and leaves the house in the morning. In
Reno,
Nevada, Zev falls in the street and is taken to the hospital, which contacts his relieved son, who travels to Reno. After a young girl reads his letter to him, Zev leaves for
South Lake Tahoe,
California by taxi. After a night in a hotel where Zev is forced to use his credit card, he arrives at the home of the fourth Rudy Kurlander and his family, and recognizes him from his voice as the Auschwitz Blockführer. Rudy is happy to see Zev and greets him very warmly. Zev's son, who traced him through his credit card and then the taxi service, arrives to witness Zev threatening to shoot Rudy's granddaughter unless he confesses "the truth" to everyone. Rudy admits to his daughter and granddaughter that he was in the SS and killed "many" people. Rudy admits his real name is Kunibert Sturm, and that Zev is confused: he is actually Otto Wallisch. They were both Blockführers, and after the war, tattooed each other with consecutive numbers to pose as Jewish survivors. Shocked, Zev shoots Sturm and then, declaring "I remember," fatally shoots himself. Back in New York, the horrified nursing home residents watch television news reports of the murder/suicide. Max reveals that he recognized Zev as Wallisch when he arrived at the nursing home, and that Wallisch and Sturm killed his family. On Max's desk, a copy of his letter to Zev is shown along with a picture of Otto Wallisch and a handwritten confession by Max. ==Cast==