A documentary account of the non-Jewish Italian resistance to Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Director Rochlitz begins with the story of his father, who was interned by the Italians during WWII, and then enlarges the film’s scope to show how Italian officials saved some 40,000 Jews from deportation to concentration camps. Unique interviews explore why these officials subverted Mussolini’s orders to comply with German plans for Jewish annihilation and how they created ingenious bureaucratic evasions and, when necessary, literal roadblocks. Previously unseen Italian and German newsreel footage, archival photos, and excerpts from Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem are also included.
“There have been so many books and films depicting the horrors of the Nazi atrocities, that it is a welcome change to find one which can call attention to decent, humanitarian people who, on a large scale, were willing to challenge the Nazis... this is the first time that the Italian resistance has been presented on film." - Carl Alpert, Jewish Advocate
"... thoughtful, carefully researched and in a way, warming...a compelling piece of work." - John Corry, The New York Times
The National Center For Jewish Film
Brandeis University, Lown 102, MS053, Waltham MA 02454
P: (781) 899 7044, F: (781) 736 2070
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