ranjna 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.

ShiiStyle 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.

moviesleuth2 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.

esseff_UK The title says it all: Forgiving Dr. Mengele is a short, simple but powerfully provocative documentary about a Holocaust survivor's decision to forgive her Nazi captors and the furor her public act creates. Filmmakers Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh force viewers to question their own capacity to forgive by detailing the story of a woman subjected to the worst kind of evil and her willingness to absolve those responsible for her suffering.Eva Mozes Kor was one of thousands of Jews turned into "human guinea pigs" by Josef Mengele, the head Nazi doctor at the Auschwitz concentration camps during World War II. While Kor's other family members did not survive their horrific treatment, Kor somehow managed to live. After the war and liberation of the camp, Kor married and started a family in America, but still lived with the pain of the past. In the 1980s, Kor met the only surviving Nazi doctor of the era, Hans Munch, and persuaded him to come back to Auschwitz with her to declare that the Holocaust occurred. During the ceremony, Kor forgave Munch and a reporter asked her whether or not she could also forgive Mengele. Kor answered yes and started a firestorm.Unlike most Holocaust documentaries, Forgiving Dr. Mengele looks at a modern-day situation through the lens of the past and tackles a philosophical dilemma along the way. Director-producers Hercules and Pugh ponder whether it is possible, or even appropriate, to forgive evil. Eve Mozes Kor makes her case about needing to heal one's own heart and soul, but other Holocaust victims, including Jona Laks and Vera Kriegel, are outraged by Kor's act. The viewer gets an unflinching history lesson about how Mengele tortured and killed under the guise of scientific research and experimentation. (The archival footage is gruesome.) There is also an intimate portrait of Kor and her family, including the husband, Michael, she met after World War II, and their two children (now grown) and grandchildren. The less forgiving Holocaust victims get much less of a back story. Despite the empathetic focus on Kor, Forgiving Dr. Mengele doesn't automatically side with her controversial announcement-at Auschwitz itself-to forgive the Nazis, but it fully explores the issues raised and eventually regards Kor as a courageous and inspiring individual. In one of the many dramatic sequences, as a group of Jews argue with Kor at a Jewish centre, the meaning of the word "forgive" is even debated, but the isolated and outnumbered Kor holds her own.The conundrum of Kor's message culminates in the passage where Kor travels to a Palestinian neighbourhood and hears from a group of activists and victims of Israeli violence about how they wish to free themselves of their hate. Kor admits later "it was more than I could deal with." This event is followed by an even more hurtful episode: Kor learns her local Holocaust museum, in Terre Haute, Indiana, has been deliberately destroyed by a fire. Yet even in face of this new hate, Kor feels more sadness than anger. She again considers forgiveness. Eva Mozes Kor's strength of spirit should inspire even those who disagree with her view, and Forgiving Dr. Mengele is a valuable document for at least that reason alone.-Eric Monder