We know that nearly 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, and also that 76,000 were deported from France. But we still don’t know how many managed to escape by crossing the Pyrenees.
The day after the French defeat against the Germans, the underground organization Armée Jueva is created in Toulouse, which signs an agreement with the French resistance, which will provide them with armed guides, and with the American JOINT, which will provide them with funds necessary The organization that fights the Nazis and fights for the creation of a Jewish state, immediately organizes the crossing of the Pyrenees with the collaboration of Catalan Republicans and Spanish refugees in France, now fighters in the French resistance, and people from the populations on both sides of the border. Meanwhile, the Spanish administration tries to prevent a flow, which the Nazis themselves say is greater than that of the fighters of the División Azul that Franco sent to Hitler to fight Soviet communism.
Through interviews with the survivors and reconstructions of the events, the documentary shows what these expeditions were like for more than 5,000 men, women, children and old Jews who crossed the Pyrenees to reach Barcelona, the starting point of a new journey towards in Palestine, America or North Africa.
Persecuted and Saved tells the story of the anonymous heroes of a feat very little known in our country: the struggle of the Armée Juive and its connections with the Catalan resistance fighters, at the same time it dismantles one of the clichés often associated with the Holocaust, Jewish passivity.
Data sheet
Title: Perseguits i Salvats, camins de nit i boira
Producer: Felip Solé
A production of: Televisió de Catalunya, Xarxa de Comunicaci Local and Diputació de Lleida
Historical advice: Eduardo Martin de Pozuelo
Camera operator: Joaquim Murga
Edition: David Burillo
Original music: Sergi Pérez Berk
Year: 2014