Forgiving Dr. Mengele (Documentary/Holocaust)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Documentary: B+
Is
forgiving forgetting? That is the
powerful question that is always asked after something so bad has been done by
one party to another that at what point this is acceptable if ever and is it
also a way to set up the forgiving to keep sticking to them again and
again. That is known as taking kindness
for weakness. For Holocaust survivor Eva
Kor, an amazing women who was one of the prisoners known as “Mengele’s Twins”
for a massive test group for his genocidal, pseudo-medical quackery against
children alone. A survivor and fighter,
Eva declares amnesty of Mengele and all Nazis by her, which becomes the controversial
turning point in Forgiving Dr. Mengele.
For Eva,
it is her personal way of ending part of the horror and pain. That she survived and could say that in
itself is remarkable. But is it fair to
those who are dead, still tortured, to history, to the relatives still
suffering (it was not that long ago)
and to those who will not and should not ever let it go? And who is this woman?
Bob
Hercules and Cheri Pugh’s documentary answers some of this by showing us about
Eva. She has her common sense approach
to things, the amazing ways she has gone out of her way to get to the truth
about the past, her building of a Holocaust museum that is eventually burned
down, her hunt for the secrets of Mengele’s experiments, her peaceful
confrontations with fellow survivors about her declaration and even her
solution to making a grilled cheese sandwich that speaks volumes about her
resolve against the unbelievable.
For some
of the questions, there are no easy answers, overgeneralizations or in some
cases, answers at all, but the one thing that is clear is that Kor is a
remarkable woman and both who she is and what she does is a quiet triumph
against Nazi Fascism and its continued reoccurrence and imitation that shows
any such fight is far from over for those who think evil has won.
Even if
you do not agree with Eva, you’ll understand her journey better by
understanding her motives to say what she said whether you can agree with it or
not. That’s very democratic indeed.
The 1.33 X
1 image has vital stills and film footage, but is mostly comprised of new interviews
and news footage. I liked the editing
too. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is
also nicely recorded. Extras include an
interview with co-director Hercules, trailer gallery, web resources/links and
very brief text bios on those co-directors.
- Nicholas Sheffo
