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Friday, November 19, 2010
Eva Kor is the reason to see the film "Forgiving Dr. Mengle." 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.
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