The Essential Link - The Story of Wilfrid Israel

2017 | 71 Minutes | Translation: Hebrew, English, Hebrew\English, German

Wilfrid Israel, the owner of Berlin's largest department store and a member of one of Germany’s most prominent Jewish families at the time of Hitler’s rise to power, was one of the great saviors of Jews during the Holocaust. He helped save thousands of Jewish children through the Kindertransport operation and secured escape for hundreds of his employees and their family members from Nazi Germany, yet little is known about his personal life and heroic endeavors. Why did his story remain untold? What was there to hide?

The previously unknown story of this extraordinary man becomes very personal, as filmmaker Yonatan Nir takes us on an adventure in search of the mysterious hero and the real reasons for his disappearance from history.

Since its premiere at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, the documentary has been screened in over 100 film festivals and organizations around the world, including Yad Vashem, the United Nations HQ in Vienna, the Holocaust Museum in Montreal, and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film also received the Audience Award at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival and New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival.

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"Wilfrid Israel did not sit on the sidelines, did not remain indifferent, but worked continuously, more than once risking his life, for the rescue of thousands of Jews, most of them children, and for the encouragement of immigration to the Land of Israel".

- Shimon Peres

"The memory of Wilfrid Israel will be engraved forever, as he would have wanted it to be, in the hearts and lives of so many that he managed to save from death".

- Chaim Weizmann

"Never in my life have I come in contact with a being so noble and as selfless as Wilfrid Israel".

- Albert Einstein