The movie “To Remember” was presented in Aytos

With the presentation of the documentary movie “To Remember” Aytos joined the national campaign “The Holocaust – Bulgaria’s Contribution to the Rescue of the Jews.” It is the “Vasil Levski 1869” library’s initiative the city to participate in Bulgaria’s Communication Strategy to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews and the deportation and destruction of nearly 12,000 Jews from Thrace, Vardar Macedonia and Pirot. The event was hosted by “Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov” High School – Aytos.

On November 19, dozens of students and citizens gathered in the school hall. Their special guests were the Deputy Governor of Burgas Region Prof. Sevdalina Turmanova and Alberta Alkalay, Chairperson of Center “Alef” and author of the film.

“Bulgaria is a crossroads country and has always been home to different ethnicities that lived in harmony. Throughout its history, our nation has remained true to the feelings it brings – a love for people and a desire to help them if they are in trouble. This is what happened 75 years ago, when our nation did an extraordinary thing – it saved their fellow Jews from certain death.

The message from the actions of our courageous forefathers is to be irreconcilable with aggression and violence, because humanity is embedded in us – the humans,” Prof. Turmanova said to the students.

The 30-minute documentary movie brought back the attendants in the dark years of World War II, the story of the humiliation, fears and despair of Burgas Jews and the joy of salvation gained by their sacrificial fellow citizens.

The author of the film Alberta Alkalay told why and how this documentary was made and what authentic facts it is referring to.

“We created this film to show who the particular persons behind the concept of ‘Bulgarian nation’ are and to show the faces of the rescuers. The greatest evil is the extermination of people only because they are different, but forgetting about it is even a greater evil.

Our cause is not to be forgotten, because memory is a guarantee not to repeat the evil,” said Alberta Alkalay.