An Irish Holocaust survivor recalls the terror of the past and confronts the resurgence of the hatreds that turned Europe into a wasteland.
Genres Documentary
Director Gerry Gregg
Starring Tomi Reichental
Irish Film Board
Ireland 2017
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Archiv der Kategorie: In Dokumentarfilmen
Alla Ricerca Radici del Male
Close to Evil
Tomi Reichental, survivor of Bergan Belsen Nazi concentration camp tells his story.
RTE and Praxis Pictures
Ireland 2015
>> RTE Ireland
I wanted reconciliation
«Embracing Alexandra Senfft, the granddaughter of the Nazi war criminal Hans Ludin who was implicated in sending 35 members of my family to death in the gas chambers, was not an act of forgiveness. Instead it was an embrace of a ‘kindred spirit’. Alexandra sought me out in order to demonstrate our common humanity. She wants to proclaim the truth and urge people not to forget.»
The Guardian 05/02/2015
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Close to Evil – A haunting and expertly-crafted documentary
With Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental
in Bratislava, Slovakia
© Kieran Horgan
Earning a runner-up spot in the Best Irish Feature Documentary Award last year, despite screening as a „work in progress“, Close to Evil returns with an extended cut featuring all-new footage. An RTÉ Radio interview marking Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2012 is the catalyst for a remarkable two year journey. Holocaust survivor Tomi discovers one of his former jailers — Hilde Lisiewicz is alive and living in Hamburg. Lisiewicz is a convicted War Criminal. Nevertheless Tomi reaches out to Hilde to offer reconciliation. Hilde asserts she is “a victim of victor’s justice”. This prompts Tomi to investigate the SS woman’s claims of innocence. Unexpectedly Tomi’s odyssey ends where his story began, back in his native Merasice, meeting the ghosts from the past and embracing a German woman directly related to the man who played a role in the liquidation of Tomi’s family.
Alexandra Senfft, featuring with Tomi Reichental in Gerry Gregg’s film «Close to Evil»
on RTE 1 (Radio Telefis Eireann’s), Irleand
1 September 2014, 9.35 pm
>> closetoevil.com
>> www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0827/639627-close-to-evil
A powerful film, incredibly moving, at times almost unbearable
Darragh McManus reviews RTE’s «Close to Evil’»
Irish Independent 24/08/2014
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The encounter that transcended years of horror
A moving meeting between a survivor of Bergen-Belsen and the descendant of a war criminal who had a hand in the deaths of his family has been caught on TV by Gerry Gregg
Irish Independent 24/08/2014
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Strawberries with the Fuehrer
In travelling to Germany, Amy met with Alexandra Senfft. Amy views Alexandra as Katerina´s equivalent on the other side of the world, and was interested in discovering what it was like for a family that stayed in Germany with a similar past.
Amy O’Connor
Positive Patterns Film
New Zealand 2010 >>more
2 or 3 things I know about him
Zwei oder drei Dinge, die ich von ihm weiß
The presence of the past in a German family
SvarcFilm
Germany 2005
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