JOHANNESBURG
A number of South African Jews have commended Turkish diplomats who served at Turkish embassies across Europe in the 1940s for helping to save Jewish lives during World War Two.
Contributions made by wartime Turkish diplomats in this regard were made known in South Africa for the first time on Sunday when the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center (JHGC) screened “Turkish Passport”, an award-winning documentary film.
The documentary shows how Turkish diplomats had provided many Jews with Turkish passports and also negotiated their release in several cases from Nazi concentration camps.
The diplomats also arranged trains for the transport of Jews from Paris to Istanbul after the Nazis had vowed to exterminate all Jews remaining in Europe.
“The documentary was very meaningful,” Israel’s ambassador to South Africa, Arthur Lenk, told Anadolu Agency. “It’s a reminder that Turkey and the Jewish people have much in common.”
He said he was grateful to have been at Sunday’s screening to honor Turkey and the Turkish diplomats’ humanitarian actions.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Hungarian Holocaust survivor Veronica Phillips said: “This is a piece of history that we never knew about. We didn’t know that the Turks were so wonderful.”
The documentary features recollections by Jews who were saved from the Nazis by Turkish diplomats. They include both Jews of Turkish nationality and Jews of various European nationalities.
More than 100 Jews, diplomats and survivors of the Rwandan genocide watched the 90-minute film at Johannesburg’s Museum of Military History.
“This unknown story deserves to be known,” JHGC Director Tali Nates told the audience following the screening.
Turkish diplomats who saved Jewish lives, she added, would be honored at an upcoming exhibition at the center.
- 'Great pride'
Turkey’s ambassador to South Africa, Kaan Esener, said he was proud of the actions of his fellow diplomats and the wartime Turkish government.
“I take great pride in representing the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which actually saved these people with the help of the Turkish government,” Esener told Anadolu Agency.
He also said he was pleased to connect with Johannesburg’s Jewish community at the event, many members of which still had ties to Turkey.
Another holocaust survivor, 87-year-old Dorris Lurie, who lived in Vienna during the Nazi occupation before escaping to Switzerland, described the documentary as “very touching”.
“It reminded me of what happened during the Nazi attacks,” she said.
Sheikh Jaabir Isaac Rumanyika, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, likewise applauded Turkey’s wartime diplomats for the humanitarian role they had played.
“The government of Turkey should be honored for its humane actions [during the war] and for showing compassion to the Jews,” Rumanyika told Anadolu Agency.
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