This black & white film “Let My People Go: The Story of Israel” dates to 1965, when it was nominated for the Academy Award. It was directed by Marshall Flaum and produced by David Wolper, with score by Mark Lavry and narration by Richard Basehart.

Opening titles: LET MY PEOPLE GO. Film begins in the mountains of Israel (:15-:54). People pay respects to those who fell at the hands of the Nazis. Historical imagery: Solomon’s temple in flames, the Jews in exile. Late 19th century Russian pogroms.Theodor Herzl, father of modern political Zionism, formed the Zionist Organization, promoting Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1897. In 1917, Jewish people fought alongside the British in World War I (:55-4:22). Men and women shovel and worked in fields in British Palestine. 1929 – Arabs try to drive the Jews out of Palestine (4:23-8:18). 1933 – Arab attacks subside. Germany — National Socialism is on the rise and so is anti-semitism. Anti-Jewish signs. Adolf Hitler openly speaks about purging Germany of Jews. Palestinian Arabs support the German regime. The large numbers of Jewish refugees cause turmoil in Palestine, resulting in the British withdrawing their support (8:19-12:52). A Jewish defense force (Haganah) is organized. New Kibbutz are erected (12:30). Britain continues to side with the Arabs and will not allow any refugees to settle there. Jewish refugees head for the shores of Palestine nevertheless. Ships with Jewish refugees are force to head out to the open sea. No port will take them; meanwhile Jewish settlers riot against the British (12:53-16:20). October 1940, occupied Poland – Nazis force the Jews into ghettos including the Warsaw Ghetto: 450,000 Jewish people put into 1 square mile. People die in the streets and starve. Children who tried to smuggle in food via the sewers are rounded up by Nazis. Typhus sweeps the ghetto, killing many (16:21-20:00). A coffin is pulled along the street. The dead are loaded onto a wagon, which is pulled to a makeshift graveyard: a giant pit. May 1943 – Hitler speaks with advisors who will undertake the so-called “Final Solution”. Jews from many countries (Poland, Holland, etc.) are being forcibly resettled (20:01-22:15). The trains are headed for concentration camps. 6,000 Jewish people are gassed every day in the Auschwitz camp in Oświęcim, Poland. Spring 1945, Europe is liberated and the Allies discover the death camps. Allies round up war criminals while German civilians are forced to bury the dead. Survivors are allowed to leave the camps (22:16-27:13). 1945 – Jews in displaced persons centers in Europe. David Ben-Gurion urges immigration, and the Haganah attempts to smuggle some people in. Emigration to Palestine: A trek across an alpine pass, refugees trudging through the snow (27:14-31:01) and finally the Italian coast, where they board a ship. After 10 days, they reach the coast of Palestine. A British destroyer intercepts the ship. August 1946 – refugees are interred at camps in Palestine, others are put on a ship bound for Cypress (31:02-35:57). A quota of 750 per month are allowed into Palestine (35:58-36:50). 1946 – arms smuggled in for an insurrection. Attacks on the British increase, with agitators and terrorists being arrested, tried and hanged. British answer violence with violence. An explosion at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem kills 80 British soldiers on July 22, 1946. June 1947 – UN Committee arrives (36:51-39:11). Nov.29, 1947 – UN votes on a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, allowing the formation of a Jewish state. The resolution is passed. May 1948 – The British Mandate is finished. People dance in the streets. The resolution means all those held in Cypress will be allowed to migrate to Palestine (39:12-42:02). Gunfire from the Arabs, Haganah fights back without British support. The Arabs are forced to retreat. May 14, 1948, British flag comes down (42:03-44:03). Sir Alan Cunningham is the last British officer to leave Palestine. In the power vacuum that follows, the armies of five Arab nations ally to strike the fledgling Jewish state. Says Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein, ruler of Jordan “this will be a war of extermination.” May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declares the independence of the Jewish state. He declares the new nation: Israel. The Jews in Cypress board a ship (44:03-46:46). Families are reunited (46:47-48:50) as a man raises a flag. The road to Jerusalem is lined with rusted out vehicles — a testament to the survival of the Jewish state in the 1948 war. A woman plants a tree on a hillside as part of a memorial to those murdered in the Holocaust (48:51-50:53). End credits (50:54-51:42).

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