Writer/director Menno Meyjes reports that before the script was written, Steven Spielberg's Amblin company was interested in the project. But Spielberg told Meyjes he couldn't bring himself to help make a movie he thought would dishonor Holocaust survivors. Nevertheless, he considered the script an excellent one and encouraged the director to push for its realization, but without Amblin.
During an early scene in the steelworks/gallery a worker is shown cutting up a locomotive for scrap. He is using an arc welder which was not in use until the second world war.
When Captain Mayr invites Adolf Hitler to speak in front of the Nationalist Socialist Party, he mentions that they number "500 men or so". The party actually only had around 50 members at this time and Hitler was given the number 555 when he became a member simply because the numbering system started at 500.
Max Rothman: You're an awfully hard man to like, Hitler, but I'm gonna try. Because if I've learned anything over the past four years, it's that we all shit the same, scream the same, and die the same.