By Donald H. Harrison

As in 1492, when the Turks accepted Jews exiled from Spain, so too did Turkey welcome Jews seeking refuge from German nazism in the 1930s. These refugee Jews proved a boon to Turkey: they taught at the university, became the architects of major public buildings, invigorated the symphony and opera, and helped Mustafa Kemal Ataturk toward realizing his vision of
Turkey becoming a modern secular state.

Through still photos, film, drawings and above all skillful narrative, this documentary illustrates quite convincingly that the relationship between the Jews and the Turks was far from one-sided. Not only did Turkey provide a refuge, but as a neutral country its diplomats in Europe actively interceded in behalf of Turkish Jews who came under the nazi boot.

One Righteous Gentile even accompanied Turkish Jews on a camp-bound train to make sure that nothing bad befell them. After the surprised nazis messaged for orders, he and they were permitted to disembark at the next stop.

As the nazi map was extended through southern Europe toward Turkey, many people feared that Hitler would conquer and then use Turkey as a springboard for attacking the Soviet Union. When Hitler instead attacked Russia via Europe, that fear eased.

Neutral Turkey served as an uncertain escape route for those Jews who could somehow get out of Europe. British diplomatic pressure was intense on Turkey to prevent Jews from reaching Palestine. One ship of refugees, denied safe harbor in Turkey, was blown up with more than 700 passengers aboard off the Turkish coast.

Such representatives of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine as Teddy Kollek and Moshe Sharett served as operatives in Turkey, developing leadership skills that later would serve them respectively as mayor of Jerusalem and as Israel's prime minister.

Another involved in rescue efforts was Msgr. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, assigned to Turkey as the Vatican's envoy for that country and neighboring Greece. Roncalli later would come to greater international prominence as Pope John XXIII and through Vatican II put an end to centuries of Roman Catholic teaching blaming Jews for the death of Jesus.

Late in World War II, as the nazi war machine was bogging down under the combined assaults of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, Hitler offered to trade the lives of one million Jews for 10,000 trucks. Jews from Hungary were dispatched to Turkey to plead with international diplomats there for the lives of their entrapped brethren. The cynical nazi offer was rejected
by the Allies, and the nazi genocide campaign against the Jews continued unabated until the end of the war.

• Desperate Hours will be screened at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at the AMC
La Jolla 12 Theatres as part of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.