The Essential Link, directed by Yonatan Nir,
is a fascinating documentary that combines personal family details with
elements of an historical thriller.
On
Kibbutz Hazorea in the Jezreel Valley, there is a building called the Wilfred
House. It is a cultural center for the
kibbutz and filmmaker Yonatan Nir’s grandfather displayed his paintings there. But Nir doesn’t know for whom it is named and
he is determined to find out. His
research unravels a story that includes Nazi cruelty, a stunning collection of
art from the Far East, survivors’ guilt and an overwhelming tale of tremendous
personal sacrifice.
The complete title of the film is The Essential Link –
The Story of Wilfred Israel and we slowly learn to appreciate the
activities of Wilfred Israel who used his personal connections and most of his
wealth to help save literally thousands of German Jews.
Wilfred Israel was a wealthy businessman, owner of a
department store in the center of Berlin, which was built by his ancestors
during the 19th century. He
was a lover of literature and art and in the 1920s, he traveled to the Far East
where he began his art collection. He had
a personal relationship with Einstein, Chaim Weizmann, Christopher Isherwood,
Martin Buber and Lord Herbert Samuel, to name a few! During a short detention in a Nazi prison, he
befriended members of a Jewish youth group, who he later helped to emigrate to
Palestine. These were the founders of
Kibbutz Hazorea. Today, his art
collection is housed in the Wilfred House on Kibbutz Hazorea!
Wilfred Israel worked unceasingly to help obtain the
necessary documents for Jews to leave Germany, expended his personal wealth to
the rescue of these Jews, with the help of the MI6 agent at the British Embassy
in Berlin, obtained visas for Jews, and was the key figure in initiating the
Kindertransport operation that saved perhaps as many as 10,000 German Jewish
children by sending them to England.
After visiting his pioneering friends in Palestine, he
traveled around Europe, desperately trying to free Jews from the clutches of
Nazism. He lost his life when, traveling
from Lisbon to London, a German missile shot down his plane.
The Essential Link tells an important and
rather unknown story of the Holocaust and, at the same time, it talks
about the importance of memory for future generations.
The film is available (beginning March 2017)
from Ruth Films in two versions: 78 minutes or 52 minutes. I previewed the longer version and was
spellbound. If you enjoyed other films that unravel historical mysteries such
as The Flat by Arnon Goldfinger and The Green Dumpster Mystery by Tal Haim Yoffe, then you will enjoy
this film also!
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