Filipino righteous commemorated in YadVaShem


Father Bienvenido OFM, chaplain of the Nazareth Holy Family Filipino Community, attended a special event at Yad VaShem on November 24, 2015.

rescue philippines

The Philippine Embassy in Israel in collaboration with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem sponsored a gathering of invited guests, both Filipinos and Israelis, to come to listen to a lecture and watch a one-hour documentary film on November 24, 2015. The topic was: “The Jewish Refugee in World War II. The Philippines as a Case Study.” There were introductory talks by Mr. Nathaniel Imperial, the Philippine Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Yossi Gevir, from Yad Vashem, and Dr. Barbara Sasser, one of the producers of the film, “Rescue in the Philippines.” Liat Benhabib, Director of the Visual Center at Yad Vashem, chaired the entire program.

Dr. David Silverklang, a historian and editor of “Yad Vashem Studies” delivered the keynote lecture. The period discussed was between 1935-1946. In 1938, many Jews in Europe were in great distress since they could go nowhere to escape Nazism and ultimately the Holocaust due to immigration restrictions in most countries. Some Latin American ones, in contrast, accepted Jewish immigrants, like Bolivia and El Salvador. By 1939, the Philippines, in the person of the last President of the Philippine Commonwealth, was not simply open to such migration but even invited the Jewish immigrants to stay in the country. And some of them did stay. In fact, a certain Mrs. Margot, who had graduated from the Philippine Women’s University in Manila, graced this occasion with her presence. Some other survivors were invited but had not been able to come.

Following the talk of Dr. Silverklang, the screening of the one-hour documentary film, Rescue in the Philippines took place. It features the roles of then Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon, the Frieder Brothers and the U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippines, Paul McKnutt, in providing a safe haven there to more than 1 300 Jews escaping the Holocaust. The film premiered in Manila in 2012 at the President’s Palace with current President Benigno S. Aquino III in attendance.

Aware of the grave crisis the European Jews were facing, the Philippine Commonwealth President, Manuel L. Quezon, earmarked 10 000 visas to enable them to come to the Philippines. He donated his own land in Marikina, a suburb of Manila, for a housing facility for Jewish refugees. He even set aside a big tract of land in the second biggest southern island of the country, Mindanao, which was envisioned to accommodate as many as 35 000 Jewish settlers. Unfortunately, World War II broke out and the arrival of the Jews in the Philippines came to a stop. Only about 1 300 Jews were able to reach the Philippines.

To immortalize this humanitarian gesture by the Philippines that offered sanctuary to hundreds of Jews in their hour of greatest need, an Open Door Monument in the Rishon LeZion Holocaust Memorial Park was unveiled on June 21, 2009. Together with this Monument and this documentary film, it is hoped to bring both Israelis and Filipinos to a greater awareness of this beautiful narrative, and a challenge to all, especially in our times when the issue of refugees is a disturbing worldwide phenomenon. The Monument is also intended to be a lasting symbol of the friendship between Israel and the Philippines.

View a clip from the film here

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