“Beslaney Memories” Post-film discussion

Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, is excited to offer the opportunity to watch the film Beslaney: Memories and engage in a post-film discussion with the film director Sara Tsifroni, producer Ancho Gosh, and the film’s researchers and protagonists Zouheir Takhaukho, and Professor Yair Auron, in conversation with CWB scholar Avi Ben-Hur.

In the summer of 1942 a convoy of orphaned children visits Beslaney, a Muslim-Circassian village in the Caucasus. They left besieged Leningrad four months earlier, and after their train was bombed, they carried on in wooden wagons, begging for bread on the road. Seeing their distress, local women of Beslaney adopted 32 of the children, including Jews. Two days later Nazi forces occupied the village, warning the villagers that they would be executed if caught hiding Russians or Jews. For six months the villagers kept the children a secret, saving their lives.

That story reached Zouheir Takhaukho, an Israeli of Circassian origin working to preserve the legacy of his people, and Professor Yair Auron, a Jewish specialist in Genocide studies, who set to verify it. The film documents their struggle to get the people of Beslaney recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. For Zouheir it is a chance to be recognized; for Yair it is something to believe in: with such stories there is, perhaps, a hope for humanity.

Throughout the film we also learn of the Circassian genocide. Half a million died, killed and exiled by Russia in the 19th century. Despite it all, when the decedents of the same people came to them for help, the Circassians did not hesitate to risk their lives to save both Russian and Jewish children.

Credits:

Scripting and Directing: Sara Tsifroni

Production and Cinematography: Ancho Gosh

Production and Sound: Haim Shaffir

Editing: Kobi Netanel

Research: Sara Tsifroni, Zouheir Takhaukho, Yair Auron, Alexander Ochtov

Script and Editing Advisor: Ifat Galilee

Original music: Ariel Kars

This film was produced for Makan 33 with the aid of Rabinovich Foundation