5/5 Stirring documentary about the life and times of Simon Wiesenthal
  by z hayes (plano,texas)
This documentary pays homage to famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal who emerged from the embers of the Holocaust, determined to seek justice for the senseless loss of lives during the Holocaust. Wiesenthal lost 89 members of his own family during the Holocaust, and together with his wife Cyla were the only survivors. They had a daughter Pauline, but even the promise of a new beginning did not deter Wiesenthal from undertaking a long and arduous journey, dedicating his life to pursuing escaped Nazis guilty of the worst war crimes.

The documentary does a credible job of covering most of Wiesenthal's life - from his early life, to his education in the field of architecture, marriage to Cyla, their move to Lvov, the Nazi persecution of Jews [Wiesenthal and his family ended up in the Lvov Ghetto, but Cyla eventually was smuggled over to the Aryan side, assuming an Aryan identity given her non-Jewish looks], his deportation to Auschwitz and other camps during the remainder of the war and his Nazi-hunting activities after the war.

There are a lot of interview segments with Wiesenthal in this documentary, and interspersed with these interviews are archival footage of the concentration camps, pictures of infamous Nazi criminals, the war crimes trials, and interviews with close associates of Wiesenthal, as well as with his daughter and only child Pauline. I felt the interview with Pauline was the most insightful as it gave a glimpse into the lonely life of a child of Holocaust survivors - having to grow up with no grandparents, uncles, aunts or cousins must have been a solitary and depressing life indeed.

Viewers also get a glimpse of the notorious Nazi criminals such as Adolf Eichmann, Karl Silberbauer, Franz Stangl, and others.The documentary is narrated by actress Nicole Kidman, and as for the documentary itself it is in German and English with subtitles. The running time is approx 105 mins. This is a must-watch documentary for all those who are interested in the Holocaust as well as those seeking insights into Simon Wiesenthal, who is a true hero for his unstinting dedication in seeking justice for the six million who perished in the horror that was the Holocaust.


4/5 a wonderful tribute to a great man
  by Roland E. Zwick (Valencia, Ca USA)
The documentary, "I Have Never Forgotten You," explores the life and legacy of Simon Wiesenthal, the concentration camp survivor who became known as the "Conscience of the Holocaust" for his tireless efforts at tracking down Nazi war criminals and for making sure that the memory of that shameful event would - as the title declares - never be forgotten.

Written and directed by Richard Trank and narrated (very effectively) by Nicole Kidman, "I Have Never Forgotten You" is a moving tribute to a man who turned an inconceivable personal tragedy - the loss of nearly 90 of his own family members, along with millions of fellow Jews and countrymen to the Nazi death machine - into a lifelong search for justice. And, indeed, it was this compelling need to see justice done - rather than any sense of personal vengeance - that motivated Wiesenthal's actions. Luckily for Trank, Wiesenthal, who died at the age of 96 in 2005, left behind a treasure trove of interviews for the director to cull from in composing his portrait of the man. Thus, thanks to the miracle of film, we have Wiesenthal relating the story of his life in his own words, often with tears welling up in his eyes. We learn of his childhood growing up in Buchach, his early days at school, his budding career as an architect. Then we are shown the dark years of the Nazi horror as he was shipped from one concentration camp to another until he was finally rescued, on the brink of death, by the Americans at Mauthausen. Almost immediately upon his liberation, Wiesenthal realized that he could never return to any semblance of a "normal" life, and, thus, dedicated himself to tracking down those responsible for the holocaust, many of whom - most notably, Adolph Eichmann, the "architect" of The Final Solution - had long since fled to the Americas (mainly Brazil, Argentina and Chile), where they were leading lives of peaceful anonymity under assumed names.

Perhaps his greatest legacy has come in the form of the Simon Weisenthal Center, an organization dedicated to not only preserving the memory of the holocaust for future generations but fighting to eradicate racism, bigotry and prejudice wherever they may rear their ugly heads in the world (Weisenthal was the first person to honor all the non-Jews - i.e. gypsies, homosexuals - who likewise perished in the camps). It is through the efforts of an organization such as this one that any future genocides and holocausts can, hopefully, be averted.

"I Have Never Forgotten You" offers not only a compelling story of a man's life but a fascinating glimpse into the history of the 20th Century, with much of the Nazi-hunting scenarios containing all the suspense and excitement of good detective fiction. Yet, the movie doesn't sugarcoat its subject. It gives voice to some of the people who had challenged Weisenthal over the years, mainly on some of the methods he had employed in tracking down Nazis (interestingly, some felt he had been too relentless, others not relentless enough).

Yet, Weisenthal never saw himself as a hero and intensely disliked having that label applied to him. He always knew that he was just an ordinary man forced to live an extraordinary life by virtue of the role fate had mapped out for him. Haunted by what he had seen and experienced in the death camps, he knew he would never be able to live at ease with his conscience if he had turned his back on the millions of less fortunate individuals who didn't make it out alive and would otherwise have no other voice to speak for them. Thus, despite his own personal modesty and all his protestations to the contrary, he was an extraordinary and inspirational man by any possible measure, a true giant among men. This moving documentary does full justice both to the man and to the giant.

5/5 This is truly great.
  by Jonathan Yoder (DC)
I have no words to describe the greatness of this documentary on the life of Simon Wiesenthal. I have read many Holocaust memoirs and seen many Holocaust documentaries and films. I spent a month in Israel as a high school student, and my mother spent a year there when she was a young woman. The life and work of this man, Simon Wiesenthal, does justice to all who suffered and perished in the Holocaust. And this documentary, just a small disc you put in a small player, is a great monument. I have already planned to give it as a gift to several people.

5/5 RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: ** "ANGER AND TEARS!" ** ** "ANGER AND TEARS!" **
  by Rick Shaq Goldstein (Danville, Ca, USA)
This is a documentary of the life of famed "NAZI-HUNTER" Simon Wiesenthal. The viewer is led with painstaking detail from his youth, to the Holocaust, his survival, and the single-purposed life he dedicated himself to thereafter. My Grandparents fled Europe a step ahead of the anti-Semitic force that was engulfing Europe. My Grandfather like Mr. Wiesenthal was from the Austrian area. I was born at the end of the decade of the concentration camps and I was raised as a proud Jew with first hand tales of the systematic eradication of my people. Before it became a renowned phrase, I was taught the mantra of "NEVER AGAIN!" When I was but a young boy, and my Father took me to get my first suit, the tailor had the infamous "Nazi-death-serial number" tattooed on his forearm. Even as a child I never forgot!

Even after a lifetime of knowing the inhumane, Nazi brutality and debauchery, that was below the lowest savagery of any animal on this planet, it is still gut wrenching, especially in Simon's case when after being freed, he found out that " ALL EIGHTY-NINE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY HAD BEEN PUT TO DEATH BY THE NAZI'S!" Subsequently through unrelenting research Simon was blessed when he found that his wife had survived and they were reunited. Later you are saddened again in a way hard to describe, when Simon and his wife decide to have a child, and realize that the child will never have a Grandmother, Grandfather, or any Aunts of Uncles. Simon said he couldn't bring himself to tell his daughter at a young age why she was the only child in the neighborhood with no extended family. Simon went so far as to ask friends in different cities to call on holidays and pretend they were relatives.

Simon dedicated his entire life to tracking down Nazi war criminals and wound up tracking down over 1,100. One of them was Adolph Eichman, the main architect of Hitler's extermination plan. What is amazing to me, is how much Simon accomplished with so little international help and so little money. Simon not only tracked down these despicable criminals, but he also changed laws. Believe it or not there was an "expiration date" or statute of limitation on war criminals in Germany, Simon got that law changed. Throughout this riveting documentary, interspersed between his dogged determination to find war criminals, we're reminded of the horror of the Nazi insanity, such as when Simon takes us to a concentration camp where there were stone steps leading up to a 165 foot cliff and when a high ranking Nazi officer came to the camp they would entertain him by pushing hundreds of Jews off the cliff to their death. The satanic Nazi's called it "Parachuting". Near the end of this film, during a presentation of an award to Simon, he gives a speech, through anguished tears, telling the crowd in attendance: "I am not a hero! I am a survivor!" I had tears streaming down my face during this and other parts of this documentary, and I also had my anger. This documentary should be required viewing in every school in the world. I also think the CIA should kidnap the President of Iran and make him watch this. In summary all I can say is: "ANGER AND TEARS!"

5/5 Inspiring true story
  by MRT (Chicago)
I guess it's beyond my comprehension how a human being could suffer so much during the most evil period of cruelty in mankind's existence, but this is exactly what Simon Wiesenthal did. He not only survived the unimaginable, but he went beyond that, and devoted the rest of his entire life to bringing the perpetrators to justice. This is a chilling, horrific and inspiring account of one man's journey from hell to criticism to heroism. There is much archival footage, and although it is very difficult to watch at times due to the nature of the Nazi atrocities, it is important to watch.

The film portrays this incredible man's life from his birth and childhood in a small Polish village, to horrors of the Holocaust which killed his beloved mother and entire family, until his liberation by the Americans, his work for them in capturing war criminals, which finally led him to set up this office on his own, with very little funding. He risked his life many times to bring these murderers to justice, and he not only did that, but he worked to inform the world of modern human genocide, such as that in Rawanda. It is not just the story of a man that helped capture Adolf Eichmann, but did so much more than that.

I also appreciate the additional look at his wife, Cyla, who also sufferred the threats to her life, and begged Simon to leave Vienna on many occassions. She never left him and stood with him until the day she died. This is also that touching love story as well. The film also includes interviews with Simon's only child, his daughter Paulinka, and her children.

The most important message that Simon left is that "we should never forget, less this happen again." If the Nazi's did anything, they showed us how incredibly evil and deluded that we, the human-race, can be. In people like Simon Wiesenthal, Raoul Wallenburg, Oscar Schindler, we have been shown that there can be great good in people as well. There lies some hope for the future.

I would only urge you to get "The Simon Wiesenthal Box Set" (here at amazon.com). It not only has this film, plus several others that were released from the production company for the Simon Wiesethal Center.