82 Names: Syria, Please Don’t Forget Us is a documentary film that traces the journey of Mansour Omari, a survivor of torture and imprisonment in Syria. Omari, a Syrian human rights activist who was imprisoned for nine months and tortured by the Assad regime, smuggled out scraps of cloth recording the names of all 82 of his cellmates. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum* is exhibiting them to raise awareness of atrocities committed by the regime. This is Mansour’s story.
In chapter 7, during a visit to Germany, Mansour learns about the history of Holocaust memory in that country, where Nazi rule precipitated the murder of six million Jews and and other victims from 1933–1945. All of Germany’s memorials began with the efforts of individuals or small groups and encountered resistance, says Klaus Mueller, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s representative there. The first step, Mueller said, is remembering the victims—a process Mansour has started in Syria by saving some of their names.
See USHMM website 82 Names: Syria, Please Don’t Forget Us
See Film talk at 2021 Munich DOK.fest about 82 Names with Maziar Bahari, Joumana Seif, Dr. Klaus Müller, Emanuel Rotstein
See Discussion on 82 Names at Munich Forum for Islam.
*Views expressed on my website are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.