Yom HaShoah….A Time to Remember. May We Never Forget. Watch Now.
As Yom HaShoah is upon us, we want to share a few opportunities to understand the Sephardic experience during the Holocaust. May we always remember….May we never forget.
‘The Longest Journey: The Last Days of the Jewish Community of Rhodes’ can be rented online from Vimeo and viewed.
It is a ‘must-see’ for those wanting to know the story of the tragic end of the hundreds years old community that existed in Rhodes.
‘The CDEC and the Shoah Museum of Rome present: THE LONGEST JOURNEY. RHODES-AUSCHWITZ (2013) a film by Ruggero Gabbai, historical research by Liliana Picciotto and Marcello Pezzetti.
On July 23, 1944, the Nazis deported almost the entire Jewish population of the island of Rhodes, while the Italian authorities that had been in charge of the Island from 1912 until the Armistice of September 8, 1943, stood by. It was late in the war, and German capitulation seemed imminent, yet the Nazi commanders did not hesitate to inflict the longest journey their criminal machine had ever planned, on this small, vibrant community nestled in this faraway island. The journey took 24 days under harrowing conditions, an atrocious transition from the Mediterranean sun to the grey hell of Auschwitz.
The Longest Journey weaves together testimonies of some of the few Jews to have survived Auschwitz, focusing on Stella Levi, Sami Modiano and Albert Israel.
The survivors, along with the film crew, returned to Rhodes from their respective lives in New York, Rome and Brussels. Each one with a powerful cinematic presence, the three recount memories of family and communal life, interactions with the local Greeks, Turks and Italians, cultural transitions, as well as the tragic last days of their community. The film provides a kaleidoscopic view of Jewish life in Rhodes under Italian dominion before the War.
Through the lens of these narrators, their early lives in Rhodes unfold as a sort of ‘paradise lost.’
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/longestjourney/169693284
‘Trezoros: The Lost Jews of Kastoria’ is airing on PBS stations across the United States THIS WEEK- check your local listings. ( These are a few we saw listed. Check local listings.
South Florida, Thursday 8:30 pm
San Francisco, KQED, Friday 9:30 pm
Los Angeles, Wednesday KCET 6:30 pm
And 9pm)
“The documentary chronicles life in the picturesque town of Kastoria, where Jews and Christians lived in harmony and friendship for over two thousand years. The title Trezoros is the Ladino/Judeo/Spanish term of endearment meaning “treasures.” The film takes the audience on a journey from the joyful innocence of the pre-war years through the heartbreaking struggles of the Holocaust, to a unique place in time and history highlighting a Greek Jewish culture lost forever.
In October 1940, the peaceful life of the community changed forever with the invasion of Greece by Axis forces. Initially occupied by Italy, the Jewish community remained, but after Mussolini fell from power, the Nazis took control of the town, eventually gathering all the residents in a single day, and sent them to concentration camps.
Using never-before-seen archival footage, Trezoros vividly brings to life just one of many Jewish communities that had existed in Greece for centuries and even millennia before the end of World War II. The film is a story told by its survivors, with interviews filmed on location in Kastoria, Thessaloniki, Athens, Tsur Moshe, Tel Aviv, Miami, and New York.
Directed by Lawrence Russo, and co-directed and produced by Larry Confino, the film was widely praised on the film festival circuit with screenings in London, Cannes, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, and Los Angeles. Russo co-founded the independent studio The Shooting Gallery (Laws of Gravity, Sling Blade) and directed the Emmy-nominated PBS short film series ShortCuts. Producer/Co-Director, Confino is the Founder of Synapse Productions and Executive Director of ImageRescue, Inc. Based in New York City, Confino has produced documentaries and commercial projects on a multitude of subjects around the world.
Trezoros is an inspiring story of survival that resonates universally and is of particular interest to Jewish and Greek communities worldwide. The poignant story of one family’s experience helps honor the memory of the once vibrant community and reminds us of man’s inhumanity to man and also of the enduring spirit of the people who survived the horrors of the war. As George Santayana wrote in The Life of Reason, 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.