Jews, Filipinos come together at Winnipeg rescue film screening

Regina Teplitsky, left, and Joy Lazo sing the Canadian anthem together before the screening of the documentary Rescue in the Philippines at the Asper Jewish Community Campus in Winnipeg on Monday. CHRIS GLOVER/CBC PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO–Jewish and Filipino communities in Winnipeg, Canada, came together in an emotional gathering Monday night, November 8 as they viewed a local screening of Rescue in the Philippines, a documentary about how the Philippines came to the aid of Jewish refugees during the Second World War.

The screening was held at the Asper Jewish Community Campus in commemoration of Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass,” when 77 years ago the Nazis in Germany murdered 100 Jews, sent 30,000 to concentration camps in Germany and Austria and destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses, ransacked schools and burned down hundreds of synagogues.

Monday’s event, called the “Philippine-Jewish Connection,” was the first time ever that the annual event in Winnipeg to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht was attended by the Filipino community.

Rescue in the Philippines reveals that while many countries turned away Jewish refugees as they tried to flee the Nazi regime, about 1,200 refugees were allowed into the Philippines. President Manuel Quezon, working with American officials and a group of businessmen—five brothers from Cincinnati who produced cigars–brought the refugees to his country.

The Monday event began with the Israeli and Filipino national anthems being sung by two separate singers, before both singers sang the Canadian anthem together, reported CBC News.

Nazis destroyed Jewish businesses, synagogues, homes on what became known as Kristallnacht or Night of the Broken Glass, 77 years ago.

“To see the two anthems being sung side-by-side, and to know that there was this link between us … I had never known about this other link,” said Chana Thau, whose father was a Holocaust survivor. “It puts a bit of positive light on the fact that there were some people who acted right.”

Among those who watched the documentary were Nila and Tito Alejandria, who said they also had no idea there was a link between Filipinos and Jews during the war. “Very proud that I am Filipino,” Tito Alejandria told CBC News.

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