User Reviews

Based on actual events, Turkish PASSPORT tells the story of how Turkish Jews - encompassing those who were actually Turkish, as well as family members married to Turks - were saved from many of the atrocities committed to other Jews during the Nazi occupation of France. As in other parts of their empire, the Nazis embarked on a systematic campaign to ostracize Jews, and subsequently send them to concentration camps back in Germany. They tried to do this with Turkish Jews, but were prevented from doing so by the intervention of local Turkish diplomats, who put their own lives at risk by insisting that, as members of a neutral country, Turks had to be left alone. The diplomats worked hard to save members of the Franco-Turkish families, issuing passports and teaching them a few words of Turkish so that they could pass as Turks. Eventually they organized a series of rescue trains to transport the Turks out of France to the safety of Istanbul. Using first-hand testimony from those involved (both French and Turkish nationals) plus re-enacted scenes, Turkish PASSPORT tells a tale of heroism and endurance that leaves us feeling uplifted, in spite of the horrors of Nazi rule.