The Center's Newest Documentary "I Have Never Forgotten You, The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal" Premiered as an Official Selection at the 'Berlinale Special' at the "2007 Berlin Film Festival" & Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival

February 16, 2007

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Newest Documentary "I Have Never Forgotten You, The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal" Premiered as an Official Selection at the 'Berlinale Special' at the "2007 Berlin Film Festival"

“I Have Never Forgotten You” is a comprehensive look at the life and legacy of Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter and humanitarian who died in 2005. Narrated by Academy Award^TM winning actress Nicole Kidman, it features interviews with longtime Wiesenthal associates, government leaders from around the world, friends and family members. Wiesenthal’s only child, Pauline, appears in the film speaking for the very time about her mother and father and their almost 70 year relationship. Academy Award^TM winning actor, Sir Ben Kingsley, who portrayed Wiesenthal in the 1989 HBO Feature, “The Murderers Among Us”, is interviewed about his close relationship with the Nazi hunter. Shot on location in Austria, England, Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, the Ukraine and the US, “I Have Never Forgotten You” also features previously unseen archival film and photos. The film is directed by Richard Trank, and co-written and co-produced by Trank and Rabbi Marvin Hier, the team that produced the Academy Award^TM winning documentary “The Long Way Home” (1997). It features an original score composed and conducted by Emmy and Grammy winner Lee Holdridge.

The Ukrainian-born Wiesenthal, a secular Jew who survived the Holocaust but lost 89 family members between his wife and himself, devoted more than six decades to the pursuit of Nazi war criminals. An architect, he never returned to his profession after the war. “Who was I going to build houses for?” he asked after so many were murdered. After witnessing the early efforts of the American Army at the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was liberated in May of 1945, to bring members of the SS to trial, Wiesenthal realized what his life’s work would be. “There is no freedom without justice,” he decided. Working first with the Americans, he then established his own organization after the politics of the Cold War caused the Allies to lose interest in the issue of prosecuting Nazi war criminals. What was the driving force behind his work? What kept him going when for years the odds were against his efforts? What sacrifices did he make in his personal life and how did his decision to bring Nazi war criminals to justice affect his wife and daughter?

Besides helping to prosecute more than 1100 Nazi war criminals, Wiesenthal was among the first to discuss the plight of the gypsies, gays, and others who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. While he became celebrated by many as the “conscience of the Holocaust” there were many controversies in his career, most notably the Waldheim affair in the 1980’s. “I Have Never Forgotten You” examines the breadth of Wiesenthal’s life--from his childhood in the Ukraine, his experiences during the Holocaust, his struggle to keep his small office open as he searched for war criminals with almost no staff or budget, the praise as well as the criticism for his work. Finally, the film asks what is his legacy today, more than 60 years after the end of World War II?

Two of Moriah Films’ previous productions, “Genocide” and “The Long Way Home”, won Academy Awards^TM for Best Feature Documentary.

Click here to read The Hollywood Reporter review of "I Have Never Forgotten You, the Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal"...

Click here to read Screen Daily Review article on "I Have Never Forgotten You, the Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal"...

Click here to read review in Los Angeles Times' Calendar Live...