Searching For The Unknown Holocaust

A Documentary Project by Boris Maftsir

It can be said that a man dies three times:
The first time, when he actually dies
The second time, when he is buried
The third time, when his name is no longer remembered.

They did not allow documentation, research and commemoration.

It is as if the Holocaust of the Soviet Jews did not occur, it was erased from collective memory.

It was only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union that the memories of almost 2.7 million of its Jews, murdered between 1941-1945, could be restored.

For the first time, here is their story.

This is a late tribute to the victims and to the history of  those whose story was not recorded.

The first task of the films in the series –
Documenting the events and photographing the witnesses:
At the locations of the events
In the exact time of year that they occurred.
Recreate the events and places to viewers.
Create a personal connection.

The Mystery of the Black Book

Stalin wanted to prevent this book from being published. Why was it so dangerous in his eyes? Boris Maftsir’s new film examines the story of the Black Book, which, if were to be published, would have changed for all of us the way we perceive the Holocaust, modern anti-Semitism and Jewish life in the Soviet Union.

The project movies.

We allow you to die

The additional film (along with ” Beyond the Nistru”) about the Holocaust in Transnistria. The film has two stories: the “Fall of Odessa” and “We allow you to die” – about the hunger camp to death Pecora.

The road to Babi Yar

“The Road to Babi Yar” traces the first hundred days of the Holocaust in Ukraine and asks how this mass extermination system evolved. Through interviews with historians, local eyewitnesses and Holocaust survivor Jews, the film paints a broad and painful picture of the fate of Ukrainian Jews in the Holocaust.

Holocaust. The Eastern Front

A second film in Boris’s documentary implores the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. The film features five stories from various parts of Russia where painful memories of the “Unknown Holocaust” are revealed.

Beyond the Nistru

This film depicts some of the Holocaust events that took place in the first year of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union territories occupied by Romania

Drawers of memory

In the sixth film of the project about Holocaust in the former Soviet Union, Boris Maftsir implores the discovery of the Holocaust memorial in Latvia.

The Guardians of Remembrance

Guardians of Remembrance – are Jewish and non-Jewish witnesses.

Until the last step

By the end of the winter of 1941 – 42, almost all the killings of Jews in eastern Belarus had already been completed.
Some ghettos still remain in the western part.

Gotenland

In November 1941, the German Army’s 11th Army occupied the Crimea. Shortly afterwards, the murder of the Jews begins – as in the other Soviet Union occupied until then. The seventh film in Boris’s Maftsir documentary project calls on the uniqueness of the tragedy of the destruction of the Crimean Jews and of Jewish kolkhozim – along with the other Jewish communities of the Crimea.

The Mystery of the Black Book

Stalin wanted to prevent this book from being published. Why was he so dangerous in his eyes? Boris’s Maftsir new film implores the story of the Black Book, which, if seen light, would have changed for all of us the way we perceive the Holocaust, modern anti-Semitism and Jewish life in the Soviet Union.

Last witnesses

Documentary project about Holocaust in USSR territories was filmed in 2013-2017.

The first million

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launches a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. The Red Army is defeated and retreats. Huge territories fall under the control of the Germans.

Sponsors.

Our project works in partnership with many organizations , who have contributed to Memory of Holocaust