Monument in Israel honors Filipinos For saving 1,200 Jews from Holocaust By Volt ContrerasPhilippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, Philippines —
Before Schindler’s List, there was another document—the Philippine visa—that saved hundreds of Jews from the gas chambers and mass graves of the Holocaust.
In 1939, two years before World War II reached the Pacific, the Commonwealth government under President Manuel L. Quezon allotted 10,000 visas and safe haven to Jews fleeing Nazi Europe . Some 1,200 Jews made it to Manilabefore the city itself fell to Japanese invaders.Before sunset on June 21, 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil.
The monument—a geometric, seven-meter-high sculpture titled “Open Doors”—was designed by Filipino artist Junyee (Luis Lee Jr.). At the program held at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion , Israel ’s fourth largest city south of Tel Aviv, the mere mention of “ Taft Avenue ” by one of the speakers brought Ralph Preiss to the verge of tears.
