Forgiving Dr. Mengele (2006)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It is so one sided that the other sides be it German or Arabs are totally ignored. The protagonist is so busy playing the role of victim and giving her own definition to the word "Forgiving" that she cannot even listen to how others (other holocaust survivors) feel. She has her own ideas about forgiveness which are totally self serving and the moment she sits with the Palestinian representatives the first thing she says is that she'd rather be in her bed in the hotel> As they tell her about the Israeli atrocities she literally tells them that she doesn't wish to hear their stories as they make her uncomfortable. She is very happy and empowered playing the role of victim and then self proclaimed "Forgiver". But when she is faced by her own race's atrocities she turns into a complete Nazi. It is so obvious in her mannerism and body language. The docu-drama is nothing but self-publicity and self promotion totally ignoring the feelings and facts presented by others.

The first half of this documentary is very strange, mostly focusing on Eva's life flashing back and forth with scenes of Auschwitz, like a demented version of Kubrick's famous 2001 switcheroo. Although we do feel sympathetic for Eva by the 20 minute mark, having learned about her troubled adulthood in a world where the Holocaust was silently passed over, the directing is almost too kitschy and weird to be a Holocaust documentary. It was not pleasant viewing.The film picks up around the 25 minute mark when Eva's quest to raise awareness of the Holocaust takes an unexpected turn. She does not only want guilt and shame, she wants the Germans to know her forgiveness. We hear some fascinating debates, but only for a few minutes. Perhaps the directors didn't want to bore us with real conflict and debate.Midway through, and again all too briefly, we get to see a real treat: a one-room Holocaust "museum" built not with government dollars and NGO support, but by and for a single woman who wanted people in her small town to know her story. With this you start to understand the real meaning and importance of Holocaust education for ordinary people. But this segment ends abruptly.Then, two unrelated segments. First, Eva's own capacity to listen and forgive is given a test when she meets with Palestinians. Here, she does not come off as very compassionate at all. This was hard to watch, and again, not pleasant. Finally, inexplicably, Eva's museum is burned down in an act of arson. This is also dealt with all too briefly. We don't see the museum being rebuilt or a new plan being drawn up -- but a new museum does appear for a split-second shot.All in all, an uneven and unsatisfying film, that introduces us to an independent thinker, but doesn't seem to take her very seriously.It is never explained why Eva wears blue every day.

Eva Kor is the reason to see this film. She is charming, heroic, and a model of strength, determination, and love in action. She and others like her are living proof that evil's victories are always temporary.I was afraid to watch "Forgiving Dr. Mengele." Hitler was one of the most evil men who ever lived, but, as far as I know, Hitler didn't personally kill or torture anyone. Josef Mengele, on the other hand, used medical tools and procedures to torture innocent victims at Auschwitz. Mengele focused on children, and on twins. Mengele is the stuff of nightmares.I hesitated before popping the DVD in the machine. In combat, Mengele won the Iron Cross for rescuing two German soldiers from a burning tank. Retired from the front and sent to be "camp doctor" at Auschwitz, he destroyed countless innocent lives. After the war, Mengele escaped, with the support of many German and South American friends, and died a free civilian's natural, comfortable death in 1979. I began thinking about what kind of hell would be appropriate for a Josef Mengele. I wondered what he thought about before he went to sleep at night.Once the DVD began playing, I quickly realized that "Forgiving Dr. Mengele" isn't about Mengele at all. It's about Eva Kor, a delightful and inspirational human being. She's a real estate agent in Terre Haute, Indiana. Kor, a well-dressed senior citizen with a Mitteleuropa accent, is shown bustling about, hammering in lawn signs that advertise property for sale, guiding potential buyers, and making grilled cheese sandwiches for her two loving children and her husband in their modest suburban home. Kor is a woman of action, not reflection. In spite of her age, she moves like a bullet, directly toward her target. She acts, rather than sits and ponders. You know she loves her family because she feeds them. Her daughter describes Kor as "unhesitant," and the viewer agrees. Kor is shown giving inspirational speeches to school children, and opening up her own, small, Holocaust memorial museum. Kor and her twin sister Miriam were survivors of Mengele's torture.Kor met with a former Nazi doctor, Hans Munch. Munch had resisted Nazi commands to take part in selections that condemned prisoners to death. He also engaged in ruses to protect prisoners' lives; former prisoners testified to this after the war. Munch was acquitted of war crimes. In 1995, Kor and Munch together issued a statement condemning the Holocaust. Kor forgave Munch. Kor was asked if she could forgive Mengele. After much thought, she said she could. Kor was challenged and her stance was rejected by other survivors.The film shows Eva Kor at home, in schools, and at her museum. It shows her meeting with Munch and speaking with him at Auschwitz. The film also shows other twin survivors saying that they can't forgive Mengele. Finally, there is a brief, awkward and out-of-place meeting between Eva Kor and Muslim Arabs, lead by Sami Adwan. Kor appears to be the only Jew at the meeting. She is confronted by several Arabs who, while glaring at Kor with undisguised hate, proceed to tell her that Jews are responsible for all the problems in their lives, and that Jews never lived in Israel before 1945. They're wrong on all counts – they get both their facts wrong and their approach. It is simply distasteful to recruit an elderly, female, Holocaust survivor, get her alone in a room, and harangue her with blatant anti-Semitism. The film doesn't comment on this encounter. No conclusion is reached. One wonders why it was included.There are a few things I wish the film had done differently. I would have liked more background on Kor's biography. What was life like after she left the camp and returned to Romania? How did she travel to Israel, and then the US? Most importantly, I never understood Kor's definition of the word "forgiveness." What does it mean to forgive? What does it mean to forgive Mengele? If he were alive today, would Kor hope for legal proceedings against him? Is Kor's insistence on forgiveness rooted in any religious belief? The film records the destruction, by fire, of Kor's Terre Haute Holocaust Memorial Museum. No one has been caught – but are there no clues the filmmaker's can bring to the viewers' attention? My reservations are small. "Forgiving Dr. Mengele" is a moving, engaging, and inspirational film. Eva Kor's abundant life and her insistence on love make it so.

When it comes to the Holocaust, there is probably no one (save for Adolph Hitler) who can send chills down a person's spine like Dr. Josef Mengele. Many people are given nicknames, but calling this unspeakably evil man The Angel of Death is no exaggeration. Mengele was behind numerous cruel, torturous and deadly experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz, and that's where the the woman at the film's focus, Eva Moses Kor, comes into the picture. For the last ten months, Eva and her twin sister, Miriam, were horrifically tortured by Dr. Mengele in his experiments on twins. Yet, fifty years later, she decides to forgive. Not only Dr. Mengele, but all of the Nazis who participated in the Holocaust. How is a person, who's been through what can only be described as Hell, have the strength to do this? Why did she do it? For Eva Kor, it's a way of releasing the pain. Forgiving the Nazis is a way of saying that their evil is not able to keep her from living the life that she wants to live. She won't allow herself to be burdened by the pain of her memories anymore.Needless to say, Eva received a lot of flak from her announcement. Some, like other members of "Mengele's Twins," are outraged. Others simply don't believe her. It is, however, important to realize that she is not excusing what happened, nor will she allow herself to forget (how can she?). Nor is she speaking for all of the Jewish people or those who also suffered during the Holocaust. This is a way for her to heal herself.The great thing about this film is that it is even handed. It gives voice to those who oppose her, and allows us to feel for them. I understood their shock and outrage; believe me, for the first half of the movie, I was in the same boat. It also allows us to question Eva. Is she really truly forgiving the Nazis? Personally, I felt that forgiveness may be an inappropriate word. What I felt that she is doing was acknowledging that it happened, and then leaving the pain of it in the past. She is not "getting over it" or "moving on." She builds a museum in her home town of Terra Haute, Indiana about the Holocaust and her experiences. But she is not allowing herself to be burdened by the pain anymore. It's a tough concept to understand, especially in this context, and I'm sure it would be near impossible to actually do. But Eva Kor does it.There is no doubt that this is a powerful, and at times disturbing, film; any film dealing with the Holocaust would be. There are many moments in the film that are very powerful. For example, her relationship with her sister and how that changed with the Holocaust. But like Eva, the film is not about the Holocaust and her experiences in them; the filmmakers are focusing on her forgiveness, and her struggles to explain her thinking and to persuade others (not just the Holocaust victims) to do the same.However, this is where the film begins to lag. About three quarters through the film, Eva goes to Israel to try to get the Israelis and Palestineans to stop fighting and forgive. It's a provocative thought and there are some effective moments in it, but the segment lasts too long, and it feels a little repetitive.For me, the most moving segment of the film is when she meets with Dr. Hans Munch, an SS doctor who was present in Auschwitz. Dr. Munch was indeed a doctor there, but he has suffered nightmares about Auschwitz ever since. Dr. Munch is happy to meet with her, and he even goes to Auschwitz with her to celebrate the fifty year celebration of the liberation of the camp, and he signs a document that acknowledges what happened there.This is a very powerful documentary, and the theme of forgiveness is something that we can use ourselves. And that's exactly what Eva wants.