PROFILE

Michael used his filmmaking skills to tell truth about Lithuanian ‘hero’

IT was when Michael Kretzmer reflected on a commemoration event in Lithuania that he realised there was something Orwellian about how the country remembers its Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.

According to him, the best example of this is is the way the Lithuanian government has manufactured a crude mythology based on lies in order to hero worship a notorious mass murderer, thief and polemical antisemite.

Jonas Noreika murdered as many as 14,500 Jews in conditions of unimaginable cruelty — and his guilt has been known for decades.

Michael sees this Holocaust denialism as an unacceptable insult, so he decided to fight back.

And his only weapon for truth was his ability to make films.

It is why he made J’Accuse, a documentary which explores — and reveals — the denialism surrounding the country’s role in the Holocaust.

J’Accuse received its world premiere last month at the Jewish International Film Festival in Australia.

It was one of five of the festival’s 52 films that achieved Encore status and a final run.

And other screenings are planned across the world, including in the UK, Israel, South Africa and America.

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