Red carpet ready for UK premiere of Holocaust survivor's film - The Solihull Observer

Red carpet ready for UK premiere of Holocaust survivor's film

Solihull Editorial 16th Jan, 2018   0

THE RED carpet is set to be rolled out for the British premiere of a critically-acclaimed documentary film by a Holocaust survivor.

Solihull School will be showing Condemned to Remember, the third in a series of films by Tomi Reichental and Emmy award-winning director Gerry Gregg, on Friday, January 26.

The screening, which is being held in partnership with the charity Remembering Srebrenica and will be open to the public, coincides with Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27.

The film has been released to critical acclaim in Ireland, with the Irish Times giving it four stars and the Sunday Independent (five stars), Sunday Business Post (four stars) and Hot Press (8 out of 10) all rating it highly.




It shows Tomi, now an Irish citizen, celebrating his 80th birthday in a Dublin Mosque and embarking on a journey across Europe, visiting Germany, Poland, his native Slovakia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In Germany, he concludes his long quest to bring the convicted SS war criminal Hilde Michnia to account, before examining Polish ‘collusion’ with Holocaust perpetrators and witnessing the rise of the neo-fascist ‘People’s Party’ in Slovakia.


In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tomi prays at the site of another war crime – the mass murder of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

The premiere will be followed by a question and answer session with Tomi, Gerry and two survivors of the 1995 Bosnian genocide, Hasan Hasanović and Dr Fatima Dautbašić-Klempić, who Tomi meets during the filming of the documentary.

Dignitaries in attendance will include local Rabbi, representatives of other faith communities and representatives from the Anne Frank Trust (UK).

Schools from across the Midlands will also be visiting for a special afternoon screening ahead of the public event.

Headteacher David EJJ Lloyd said: “It’s a real honour to be hosting the premiere of Condemned to Remember, which is an extremely powerful and thought-provoking piece of work.

“The ongoing commemoration of Holocaust victims and survivors and gaining an understanding of what they endured, is an important facet of life at our school.

“We also hope members of the public with a keen interest in the subject will join us for the screening, which is free to attend.”

Solihull School has strong links with the Holocaust Memorial Trust, for whom former pupil and current gap year tutor Megan Lloyd is an ambassador, while two years ago a sapling taken from the tree Anne Frank could see from her hiding place in Amsterdam was planted at Solihull School on Remembrance Day by a survivor from Auschwitz.

The school also played host to the British premiere of another Tomi Reichental film, Close to Evil, in 2016.

The screening starts at 6.30pm.

Tickets are free and can be reserved at http://bit.ly/condemnedtoremember

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