Does a victim of the holocaust have the right to forgive her torturers? Eva Mozes Kor, who survived gruesome experiments undertaken on twins at Auschwitz has made her decision: "When I began to forgive the Nazis, I felt that a burden of pain was lifted from my shoulders." This public declaration has provoked strong opposition, not only among holocaust survivors. American filmmaker, Bob Hercules, accompanied Eva Mozes Kor over many years with his film camera, examining how and why the Auschwitz
survivor chose to heal her wounds by forgiving her oppressors.
This tale of one survivor determined not to let those horrific experiences define her is moving enough to make Forgiving Dr. Mengele a worthy addition to the ever-growing canon of Holocaust-related films.
It's hard to know whether to be impressed or appalled by Eva Mozes Kor, the Holocaust survivor in Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh's fascinating documentary.
The politics of forgiveness cast a heavy shadow over Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh's documentary about Romanian-born Eva Mozes Kor, who endured 10 months of Dr. Josef Mengele's notorious medical experiments.
The film's visual style is unremarkable and includes some really jejune transpositions and graphic matches the filmmakers use to bridge the past and present, but the woman's memories are vivid enough without such affectations.
Though some of the heated exchanges in Forgiving Dr. Mengele seem awkward and staged, they put Kor at the center of a riveting debate over how best to come to terms with past horrors, and the potential (and limits) of putting them to rest.
An extremely interesting documentary about a survivor of the Mengele twin experiments in Auschwitz, who decides she needs to forgive Dr. Mengele and the rest of the Nazis, as an act of self-healing (releasing herself from their hold on her through bitterness). Understandably, she meets with a lot of resistance as she
tries to teach other people that they too need to forgive. The movie does a wonderful job of showing the ways people reacted to her message, both good and bad. I'm not usually one for documentaries, but this one kept my attention from the beginning to the end. Fascinating story, and I'm glad it was told.
It would be tough not to be moved by this documentary. Eva Kor is an amazing woman who has to be admired, whether one agrees or disagrees with her standpoints. This documentary is well pieced together, with a good balance of living today and living then. It does however get a bit repetitive, but overall the effect is
powerful.
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