[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 65 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E864-E865]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE SCREENING OF THE TURKISH HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTARY ``DESPERATE HOURS''

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 20, 2002

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to mark a special 
occasion, the screening of the film documentary ``Desperate Hours,'' 
the story of Turkish assistance to European Jews seeking to flee the 
Holocaust. Produced and directed by Victoria Barrett, the film will be 
shown at 7:15 p.m. in room HC-7 in the Capitol. I am proud to be a co-
sponsor of this event.
  Mr. Speaker, I first visited Turkey as a young man in 1956. My wife 
Annette and I have returned to enjoy Turkish hospitality many times 
since. When I first visited Turkey, it was just a few short years after 
Turkey had made the crucial decision to join NATO, where it has always 
been a loyal Western ally, first against Soviet tyranny, later against 
ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and now against global terrorism.
  But what most ennobles Turkey for me is Its role as a savior of so 
many Jews during the two greatest Jewish tragedies of the past 
millennium, the Inquisition and the Holocaust. During the Inquisition 
of the late fifteenth century, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezit invited the 
fleeing Jews of Spain and Portugal to find comfort in his realm. The 
500th anniversary of this episode--both sad and redemptive--was marked 
by Turkish Jews and non-Jews alike in 1992.
  The documentary ``Desperate Hours'' commemorates Turkey's rarely 
cited role in that other Jewish tragedy--the greatest crime of the 
bloody twentieth century--the Holocaust. Turkey's efforts were as 
important and dramatic as they are little known. Turkey offered refuge 
to hundreds of Germans--non-Jews as well as Jews--during the 1930s. Its 
diplomats in France, often without waiting for instructions from the 
capital, conferred Turkish citizenship on thousands of desperate Jews 
trapped in Nazi-occupied and Vichy France. In some cases Turkish 
diplomats, at great personal risk, stared down Gestapo officers to 
protect their new fellowcitizens, as was the case with the saintly 
Necdet Kent. All this, while Nazi troops stood poised on Turkey's 
borders.
  My wife and I were saved by Raul Wallenberg. I am pleased that the 
Turkish versions of Wallenberg are at last receiving their due.
  The intimate links between Turks and Jews continue, of course, to 
this day. A community of some 25,000 Jews thrives in contemporary 
Turkey. Tens of thousands of Turkish Jews living nearby in Israel 
cherish their links to Turkey. All of this is a testament to the 
Muslim-Jewish friendship that has been a hallmark of the Turkish 
historical experience.
  In recent times, Turkish-Jewish friendship has been enriched and 
deepened by the close relations Israel and Turkey have forged in recent 
years. Journalists have focused on the security relationship--and that 
indeed is important--but the non-security aspects of this relationship 
are growing even more rapidly: burgeoning commercial trade now worth 
over a billion dollars a year, Israeli tourists by the hundreds of 
thousands flocking annually to

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Turkey, and a vibrant intellectual exchange between Turkish and Israeli 
universities.
  No other Muslim society rivals Turkey's record regarding the Jews; in 
fact, few societies of any type anywhere in the world do. I 
congratulate my dear friend former Ambassador Baki Ilkin, who so 
strongly supported this documentary project, and my dear friend the 
current Turkish ambassador Faruk Logoglu. I strongly commend all those 
associated with the film ``Desperate Hours'' for helping to elucidate 
and publicize one of the most important chapters in the long, dramatic, 
and mutually rewarding history shared by the Jewish and Turkish 
peoples.

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