''Turkish Passport'' is a 2011 Turkish film directed by Burak Arliel that purports to tell the story of rescue of Jews during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

by Turkish diplomats. It was promoted as "the only Holocaust film with a happy ending". The historical accuracy of the film has been criticized, for presenting unsubstantiated accounts of rescue. Historian

Marc David Baer Marc David Baer is a Jewish American historian and Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , typ ...

calls it a "

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

". Turkish-born historian

Uğur Ümit Üngör Uğur Ümit Üngör (born 1980) is a Turkish scholar of genocide and mass violence. Career Üngör, who was born in Turkey and raised in Enschede in the Netherlands, earned a doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 2009,Aram Arkun"Prolific ...

states that the film is "based on manipulation, mystification, and misrepresentation".

Production

Turkish Jews The history of the Jews in Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Yahudileri or ; he, יהודים טורקים, Yehudim Turkim; lad, Djudios Turkos) covers the 2400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in An ...

helped to produce the film. Historian

states that "The attitudes of these Jewish community leaders represent the

Stockholm syndrome Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors. It is supposed to result from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, an ...

of some minority elites in Turkey, who believe that only absolute conformism to the Turkish government can guarantee their security in the country." The film was financed partly by the Turkish government.

Synopsis

''Turkish Passport'' tells the story of diplomats posted to Turkish embassies and consulates in several European countries, who are presented as saving numerous Jews during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Whether they pulled them out of

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

s or took them off the trains that were taking them to the camps, the diplomats, in the end, ensured that the Jews who were Turkish citizens could return to Turkey and thus be saved. The film portrays diplomats as saving not only the lives of

, but also rescued foreign Jews by giving them

Turkish passport Turkish passports ( tr, Türk pasaportu) are issued in accordance with the Passport Act (No. 5682) from 15 July 1950 to Turkish citizens to travel abroad. Citizens of the ''de facto'' state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) ...

s. At the end of the film, Jews are depicted celebrating after their train crosses the border from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

into Turkey. Contrary to what is portrayed in the film, 15,000 Jews from this region had fled as a result of the

1934 Thrace pogroms The 1934 Thrace pogroms ( tr, Trakya Olayları, "Thrace incidents" or "Thrace events", Judaeo-Spanish, Ladino: ''Furtuna/La Furtuna'', "Storm") refers to a series of violent attacks against History of the Jews in Turkey, Jewish citizens of Turkey ...

Awards and coverage at festivals

*The film was shown for the first time at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

on May 18, 2011. *At the 2011

Moondance International Film Festival The Moondance International Film Festival is an independent annual film festival and awards competition in the USA that takes place in the fall. The first Moondance Film Festival was held in 2000. The festival has usually been held in Boulder, Co ...

, it won 'Best Feature Documentary Award' in the Foreigner Category *

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart ...

Golden Boll Film Festival 2011 - Feature Film Finalist Category - *

Antalya Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...

Golden Orange

Film Festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

2011 - Special Screening - *

Atlanta Jewish Film Festival The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is the largest film festival of any kind in the Georgia (U.S. state), state of Georgia and is the largest Jewish film festival in the world. The 23-day festival is held in late winter at multiple venues in Atlanta, ...

2012 - included to program - *The European Independent Film Festival 2012 - Foreigner Category, Best Feature Documentary Finalist - *Zagreb Jewish Film Festival 2012 - included to program - *UNSPOKEN Human Rights Film 2011 - included to program - *Amsterdam Turkish Film Festival - participated - *Yosemite Film Festival 2011 - the winner of the John Muir Award

Historical accuracy

The historical accuracy of the film has been criticized. The claimed rescues are not substantiated beyond the testimony of alleged rescuers. One of the alleged rescuers profiled in the film,

Behiç Erkin Behiç Erkin (1876 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire – November 11, 1961, in Istanbul, Turkey) was a Turkish career officer, Armenian genocide perpetrator, first director (1920–1926) of the Turkish State Railways, nationalized under his aus ...

, was a perpetrator of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

. Thousands of expatriate Turkish Jews were deported to the death camps because their citizenship was denied by Turkish officials, but this fact is never mentioned in the film. Only one Turkish diplomat,

Selahattin Ülkümen Selahattin Ülkümen (14 January 1914 – 7 June 2003) was a Turkish diplomat and consul in Rhodes during the Second World War, who assisted the Jewish community in the island with Turkish citizenship to avoid them being deported during the Holo ...

, has been recognized as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

, but he is not covered in the film. According to historian Corry Guttstadt, the film "aims at reinforcing the Turkish official line, which states that Turkey generously saved thousands of Jews during World War II", despite the lack of evidence to support this narrative. She criticizes a variety of historical inaccuracies in the film, calling it a pseudo-documentary. Baer states that "''Turkish Passport'' and efforts like it are actually a form of

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

", since they ignore the fate of Turkish Jews who were killed.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1951292, Turkish Passport
Filmpot
page for the film 2011 films English-language Turkish films Turkish war films Films shot in Turkey World War II films Turkish propaganda films 2010s English-language films