Film Review: Condemned to Remember

Tomi Reichental is a Holocaust survivor, who aged 10 finally escaped the unimaginable horrors of the Nazi Death Camps. Living in Ireland since 1959, Tomi has dedicated his life to raising awareness about the dangers of extremism, xenophobia and bigotry in all their forms. After celebrating his 80th birthday in a Dublin mosque, Tomi embarks upon a journey across Europe, shedding light on the turmoil still being inflicted upon so many people.
In Germany, Tomi continues his lifelong quest to see a SS war criminal held accountable. He then visits Poland and Slovakia, highlighting the "crisis of shame" that prevents those countries from acknowledging the horrifying levels of local collusion. Tomi embraces people, Muslim people who were injured and bereaved by the Bosnian genocide of 1995, and interviews Syrian refugees who fled their homes searching for food, water, safety and shelter - only to be met with closed borders and accusations of terrorism.
The latter issue becomes especially discouraging when we see the rising xenophobia in Ireland, and the surge in anti-immigrant sentiment against Syrians. The self-serving forgetfulness is obvious; throughout our history, we endured religious and political oppression as well as huge emigration, yet we refuse to help people desperate for refuge. Tomi is an open-hearted interviewer, his kindness prompting revealing insights from those he meets.
Director Gerry Gregg effectively uses news footage to show the violence and terror inflicted upon people around the world, before Tomi and his interviews personalise these crises. The call for empathy, social responsibility and resistance of bigotry feel incredibly prescient and important in this era of neo-Nazis, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. "We are all possible victims," muses Tomi, "but also possible perpetrators, possible bystanders."

8/10
Out now