Turkish Passport

Turkish Passport is a 2011 Turkish film directed by Burak Arliel that purports to tell the story of rescue of Jews during the Holocaust by Turkish diplomats. It was promoted as "the only Holocaust film with a happy ending". The historical accuracy of the film has been criticized, for presenting unsubstantiated accounts of rescue. Historian Marc David Baer calls it a "propaganda film". Turkish-born historian Uğur Ümit Üngör states that the film is "based on manipulation, mystification, and misrepresentation". Production Turkish Jews helped to produce the film. Historian Uğur Ümit Üngör states that "The attitudes of these Jewish community leaders represent the Stockholm syndrome of some minority elites in Turkey, who believe that only absolute conformism to the Turkish government can guarantee their security in the country." The film was financed partly by the Turkish government. Synopsis Turkish Passport tells the story of diplomats posted to Turkish embassies and consulates in several European countries, who are presented as saving numerous Jews during the Second World War. Whether they pulled them out of Nazi concentration camps or took them off the trains that were taking them to the camps, the diplomats, in the end, ensured that the Jews who were Turkish citizens could return to Turkey and thus be saved. The film portrays diplomats as saving not only the lives of Turkish Jews, but also rescued foreign Jews by giving them Turkish passports.