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Monday, April 21 2003 @ 05:00 PM Central Daylight Time
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 The documentary Desperate Hours provides a rare glimpse of hope into the otherwise grim tale of the Holocaust by recounting a triumphant tale of a group of Turkish diplomats, government workers and clergymen who attempted to save Jewish lives from the hands of the Nazis.
More than just saving lives during the World War II, the Turkish government began its crusade early in the century by harboring intellectuals such as professors, scientists and artists who were barred from teaching in Germany. Although not all of them were Jewish, of the 200, two-thirds were considered Jewish by the Nazi.
The film interviewed the children of these intellectuals, most of them recalled their childhood growing up in a Turkish seaside town idyll.
Once the war broke out, Turkey, being a neutral state, provided their Jewish population an equality in their living condition. Some heroic tales along the line of Oskar Schindler were told. But aside from these heart-warming rescue stories, documentary-filmmaker Michael Berenbaum balanced his film by recounting a blotched chapter in the Turkish-Jewish history about the Struma, a ship with Jewish refugees that was left stranded in the ocean for months, waiting for the Turkish government's permission to allow its passengers to enter Turkey. The ship was finally sunk by a Russian torpedo, ending more than 700 lives.
Another amazing story happened in the Catholic church of Turkey. Archbishop Joseph Roncalli saved numerous lives by providing the Turkish Jews with protection. Later on, Roncalli went on to become Pope John XXIII. In the sixties, after thoroughly studying the Bible, he officially announced that the Jewish were not responsible for the death of Jesus. And that Jesus was a Jew himself.
The film is like a breath of fresh air that does not come along too often when the issue of the Holocaust is discussed. At the time when humanity is at its low, "Desperate Hours" provides a redemption.
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