The focus of The Forgotten is memory.

Professor Elhanan Rosenbaum, a Holocaust survivor, is a well-respected and talented psychotherapist who prides himself on his memory because it is so crucial to the Shoah (Holocaust). Rosenbaum believes that it is crucial for him to remember the countless victims that he has seen in his native city of Feherfalu in Romania because forgetting the pain and suffering of the Jews dishonors and diminishes the pain experienced by those who lost their lives. That is why saying Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) is important to him. As a psychotherapist, Rosenbaum heals his patients (predominantly Holocaust survivors) by getting them to remember and reveal their pain so that they can continue to lead productive lives without repressing memories. Gradually, Rosenbaum discovers, to his horror, that he is quite ill and that he suffers from a terrible disease—one...