The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel | |
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Directed by | Yonatan Nir |
Produced by | Noam Shalev |
Cinematography | Yoav Kleinman |
Edited by | Tal Brog, Shlomi Shalom |
Music by | Isaar Shulman |
Release date |
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Running time | 71 minutes |
Country | Israel |
Languages | English, German, Hebrew |
The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel is a documentary by Israeli director Yonatan Nir. The film, which is inspired by Naomi Shepherd's book Wilfrid Israel: German Jewry's Secret Ambassador, exposes the story of Wilfrid Israel - a wealthy Jewish businessman and owner of Berlin's largest department store in the 1930s, who was involved in the saving of tens of thousands of Jews and played a key role in the Kindertransport rescue operation. The film was produced by Highlight Films and premiered at the 2017 DocAviv International Film Festival. [1] [2] [3] [4] Among the major rescue efforts and operations, that are described in the film are the Kindertransport and the "Triangle" that beyond Wilfrid Israel included also Captain Frank Foley and Hubert Pollack, which saved according to estimations around 10,000 Jews.
The documentary features filmed interviews with Kindertransport survivors, members of Kibbutz HaZore'a, historians, scholars and relatives of Wilfrid Israel, including Prof. (Emeritus) Moshe Zimmermann and Prof. (Emeritus) Leslie Brent.
The documentary was screened in several film festivals and Holocaust remembrance events around the world. [5]
Wilfrid Israel - The Savior from Berlin | |
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Directed by | Yonatan Nir |
Produced by | Noam Shalev, Ilan Baer, Ophir Baer, Estie Hazarie |
Cinematography | Yoav Kleinman |
Edited by | Aviv Peres |
Music by | Isaar Shulman |
Release date |
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Running time | 34 minutes |
Country | Israel |
Languages | English, German, Hebrew |
In 2012, a 34-minute documentary under the name of Wilfrid Israel: The Savior from Berlin was released by Yonatan Nir, Noam Shalev, Ophir Baer and Ilan Baer. The film is screened on a weekly basis at the Wilfrid Israel Museum in Kibbutz HaZore'a. Many of the materials that were collected during the production of the film were later used in The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel. [6] [7]
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the survivors; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. Yad Vashem's vision, as stated on its website, is: "To lead the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, and to convey the chronicles of this singular Jewish and human event to every person in Israel, to the Jewish people, and to every significant and relevant audience worldwide."
Hannah Szenes was a Hungarian Jewish poet and a Special Operations Executive (SOE) member. She was one of 37 Jewish SOE recruits from Mandate Palestine parachuted by the British into Yugoslavia during the Second World War to assist anti-Nazi forces and ultimately in the rescue of Hungarian Jews about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz.
Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah, known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance of the day was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset in 1959. It is held on the 27th of Nisan, unless the 27th would be adjacent to the Jewish Sabbath, in which case the date is shifted by a day.
The Kindertransport was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi-controlled territory that took place in 1938–1939 during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust. The programme was supported, publicised, and encouraged by the British government, which waived the visa immigration requirements that were not within the ability of the British Jewish community to fulfil. The British government placed no numerical limit on the programme; it was the start of the Second World War that brought it to an end, by which time about 10,000 kindertransport children had been brought to the country.
This is a selected bibliography and other resources for The Holocaust, including prominent primary sources, historical studies, notable survivor accounts and autobiographies, as well as other documentation and further hypotheses.
Major Francis Edward Foley CMG was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer. As a passport control officer for the British Embassy in Berlin, Foley "bent the rules" and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of the Second World War. He is officially recognised as a British Hero of the Holocaust and as a Righteous Among the Nations.
Sir Nicholas George Winton was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue Jewish children who were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Born to German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children needing rescue and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport.
The March of the Living is an annual educational program which brings students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. On Holocaust Memorial Day observed in the Jewish calendar, thousands of participants march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau.
Hillel Kook, also known as Peter Bergson, was a Revisionist Zionist activist and politician.
Leslie Baruch Brent was a British immunologist and zoologist. He was Professor Emeritus, University of London, from 1990. An immunologist, he was the co-discoverer, with Peter Medawar and Rupert Billingham, of acquired immunological tolerance. They injected cells from donor mice into fetal mice, and later neonatal mice, which would as adults receive donor skin grafts without rejection.
HaZore'a is a kibbutz in northern Israel established in 1936 by German Jews. It is the only kibbutz that was established by members of the Werkleute movement. Located in the western rim of the Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megiddo Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 930.
Wilfrid Berthold Jacob Israel was an Anglo-German businessman and philanthropist, born into a wealthy Anglo-German Jewish family, who was active in the rescue of Jews from Nazi Germany, and who played a significant role in the Kindertransport.
Moshe Zimmermann is an Israeli historian and writer. Since 1986 he has been director of the Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Sdot Yam is a kibbutz in the Haifa District of Israel. Located on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 1,162.
Benzion Netanyahu was a Polish-born Israeli encyclopedist, historian, and medievalist. He served as a professor of history at Cornell University. A scholar of Judaic history, he was also an activist in the Revisionist Zionism movement, who lobbied in the United States to support the creation of the Jewish state. His field of expertise was the history of the Jews in Spain. He was an editor of the Hebrew Encyclopedia and assistant to Benjamin Azkin, Ze'ev Jabotinsky's personal secretary.
Alfred (Al) Mansfeld was an Israeli architect.
Turkish Passport is a 2011 Turkish film directed by Burak Arliel that purports to tell the story of rescue of Jews during the Holocaust by Turkish diplomats. It was promoted as "the only Holocaust film with a happy ending".
Yonatan Nir is an Israeli documentary film director and producer and a former photojournalist.
Hubert Isaac Pollack was a German Jew whose clandestine activity prior to the Holocaust enabled him and his associates to save a large number of Jews. After his immigration to Israel, he served in the Haganah and the Israeli Defense Forces.