Eva becomes a personal hero. What could have been another grotesque documentary about the horrific offenses of the Holocaust, becomes a graceful and incredibly smart analysis of humanity. Eva, this tiny 60 year old lady, with her head hanging off one shoulder, comes out and says she forgives the Nazis, and Dr. Mengele.
Big deal, right? It becomes quite a big deal. Other holocaust survivors, other Mengele twin victims come out to publicly criticize Eva. The body of the film investigates forgiveness- whether Eva genuinely forgave Dr. Mengele or not (I don't think it would be humanly possible to do when he was responsible for killing her entire family) doesn't matter as much as what it means to everyone else. The word forgive comes with this acidic and powerful bang, it opened the flood gates of criticism from the Jewish community.
"We are not Gods, we can not forgive." "To forgive would be to betray our parents." "It is not my place to forgive."
I had never heard of anyone using these excuses before, much less believing them. I realized that forgiveness is emphasized in the New Testament and in my upbringing. Perhaps in the Jewish community it means something different, perhaps they don't see it as a virtue at all . . . and that seems totally bizarre to me.
Please do not assume that I mean to say Catholics and Christians are more virtuous people- they may speak from the moral foundation I know, but they are by NO MEANS, more virtuous people.
This tiny, Polish woman, then, builds a museum in the Midwest where she raised her family, travels the world faced with opposition from the Jewish community and survivors- the only identity she can claim to be her own; without a family, without her home country- and she fights.
I don't see her forgiveness as being weak- quite the contrary, she just wanted to relieve its hold from her soul, she wanted the suffering to be over, so she let it go.
Big deal, right? It becomes quite a big deal. Other holocaust survivors, other Mengele twin victims come out to publicly criticize Eva. The body of the film investigates forgiveness- whether Eva genuinely forgave Dr. Mengele or not (I don't think it would be humanly possible to do when he was responsible for killing her entire family) doesn't matter as much as what it means to everyone else. The word forgive comes with this acidic and powerful bang, it opened the flood gates of criticism from the Jewish community.
"We are not Gods, we can not forgive." "To forgive would be to betray our parents." "It is not my place to forgive."
I had never heard of anyone using these excuses before, much less believing them. I realized that forgiveness is emphasized in the New Testament and in my upbringing. Perhaps in the Jewish community it means something different, perhaps they don't see it as a virtue at all . . . and that seems totally bizarre to me.
Please do not assume that I mean to say Catholics and Christians are more virtuous people- they may speak from the moral foundation I know, but they are by NO MEANS, more virtuous people.
This tiny, Polish woman, then, builds a museum in the Midwest where she raised her family, travels the world faced with opposition from the Jewish community and survivors- the only identity she can claim to be her own; without a family, without her home country- and she fights.
I don't see her forgiveness as being weak- quite the contrary, she just wanted to relieve its hold from her soul, she wanted the suffering to be over, so she let it go.