[6] According to film critic Virgil Dumez, 'despite obvious stylistic blunders, Victor Young Perez takes the viewer through the evocative power of its history and therefore wins by KO after an unequal battle, but pretty exciting'.

[7] Dennis Harvey stated that the film was 'enjoyable if unmemorable, so long as it portrays the life of its titular figure' but turned 'heavy-handed, however, when dealing with his death' as the tragic tale is blunted by the stereotypical 'portrayal of sneering Nazi sadism'.

[8] Jordan Mintzer stated that 'while many filmmakers would find tragedy in the simple fact that Perez wound up in a death camp, the director piles on the schmaltz here in one ill-advised scene after another, leading to a gruesome, final brawl with a beefy German that turns the horrors of Auschwitz into a spectacle worthy of Rocky IV'.

[9] A different reviewer stated that the film contains 'an impressive story that in the hands of debutant Ouaniche has unfortunately turned into a half-hearted melodrama that is almost exclusively populated by uninteresting stereotypes'.

[11] In contrast, Yvonne Kozlovsky Golan stated that the film highlighted the 'WWII experience of North African Jewry' in a 'clear and understandable, emotionally and consciously accessible manner'.