The Holocaust of the Jews in the former Soviet Union has remained a mystery even many decades after the war has ended. Due to ideological and political reasons, the Soviet regime did not recognize the unique and tragic nature of the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. It was only after the dismantling of the Soviet Union that efforts towards documentation and commemoration of Holocaust victims in these areas were possible. Following seven years as the head of a project at Yad
Vashem to recover the names of Holocaust victims in the Former Soviet Union, Boris Maftsir sets out on a journey never seen before on the screen – a journey to restore the memory of a Holocaust that was all but forgotten. In the
“Guardians of Remembrance”, the first film of the project “The Holocaust in the Soviet Union,” Boris Maftsir offers a comprehensive and accurate picture of the events of the Holocaust in Belarus. The memory keepers depicted in the film are both Jews
and non-Jews along with local individuals who work towards commemoration. The film “Guardians of Remembrance” was filmed at the actual extermination sites and precisely illustrates the sense of time and place of the tragic events.
About The Holocaust in the Soviet Union:
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.
This is the essence of the project: to remember and recall the fate of nearly half of the victims of the Holocaust. This is the last chance to bring back the story that was excluded by Josef Stalin and his collaborators after the end of WWII – until the collapse of the USSR.