The Jew with a Nazi Medal - A hero or a traitor?

a documentary about Moisés Benshabat Amzalak

WORK IN PROGRESS

Moisés Benshabat Amzalak was the president of the Lisbon Jewish Community from 1912 to 1978. There is no doubt that Moisés Amzalak is one of the most controversial figures of Jewish history.

Few years ago, the community of Portuguese Jews were shocked when two historians published a book, about Amzalak´s political connections. It was a bomb in the media. Amzalak was not only accused of releasing Nazi propaganda in his newspaper "O Século”, but of receiving a Nazi medal.

Nowadays, the majority of the Jews in Portugal, express ideas like: "Amzalak just tried to save his community. And that was the way he could...”

But who was Amzalak? A hero, who managed to save thousands of human lifes, or a traitor, who betrayed his own community?

Through life-stories, documents, and an exhaustive investigation about the Jews that came to Portugal during the Second World War, we will try to have a real picture about Amzalak and his controversial life as well as a better understanding of the controversial relation between ideology and real life.

One of the interviewees says in the film: "To say, that a Jew can not be fascist, is an anti-semitic statement!"

Director

Eszter Hajdu

Cameraman

Fabio Ribeiro

Music

Sandor Mester