Sabado, Chelsea Mariz M.

February 20, 2020

BOM 23 Mr. Eduardo Malvar

THE LAST MANILANERS: A Movie Review

The Last Manilaners was from the producers of Quezon’s Game and is directed by Nico
Hernandez, it was released last January 27 in iWant or also known as iWanTV, a Philippine
over-the-top content platform and production company owned and operated by ABS-CBN. It is a
documentary video that consists of 4 amazing episodes that will tell you the untold history of the
Philippines saving several Jews during the Holocaust. The Last Manilaners serves as a physical
evidence of the Philippine’s effort to extend a helping hand during one of the world’s darkest
days. It contains 540 names of the estimated 1,300 Jewish refugees who lived in the Philippines
during the Second World War. These names were those refugees who were escaping the air of
terrors cultivated by the Nazis which is led by Adolf Hitler. This number of names is too little
compared to the number of the names that are not included. An estimated 6 million Jews have
accepted their unfortunate fate of torture and death during the Holocaust. Three of those
estimated 1,300 Jews who survived are still alive today, they are open to tell the untold history
of the Philippines; of how they found their safe haven here in the Philippines, those are Margot
Pins Kestenbaum, Lotte Cassel Hershfield and Max Weissler.
Margot Pins Kestenbaum was born on January 30, 1931 while Lottie Cassel Hershfield was
born on February 9, 1931, both of them were born in Breslau Germany which is now Wroclaw,
Poland. Germany was a home for the Cassel Family into which Lotte and Margot were born,
they were cousin which they told that more like sisters. Coming from a family who are practicing
a Jewish faith both of Margot and Lottie were brought in a wonderful environment, where people
are treated with dignity and respect. But unfortunately, the world demonstrated otherwise,
everything changed. Jews have been disrespected in their country wherein you can signages in
parks that No Pets and Jewish allowed, they can even see Nazi Case wherein they portray
Jewish people with big nose, imagine a child who used to live normally and enjoy her childhood
would see and treated like this. A childhood of them which should be filled with happy memories
and games were replaced of endless hiding, they kept on running just to be safe from the Nazis
and from the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. It came to the point that Margot’s father was fired to the
company he had worked for, for 3 decades because of his Jewishness, and Lotte’s parents
have said that base on what is happening to their country, they can already see black days
ahead. They have accepted the fact that in order to survive they needed to leave but the
problem was, where are they going because not a single country would allow them to enter and
give them visa as a Jews. Knowing how these Nazis together with their leader Hitler hates
Jewish people and how they treated them in such ways will make you think, what does it makes
Hitler hate Jewish people? Where it came to the point that an estimated of 6 million Jews have
been tortured and killed?
According to Jose Tirol a historian from the Ateneo de Manila, Adolf Hitler was an Anti-Semite
so he would say Jewish are dangerous, an inferior race, the term he used was “Untermensch”.
He identifies Jews as sub-human; less than a human. Aryans builds culture while Jews destroy
culture, he said that Aryans race are the pure once and these Jewish people are polluting that
according to Dr. Rico Jose, historian from University of the Philippines. When Hitler and the
Nazi Party rose to power, anti-Semitism and racism were promoted in the form of constitution
known as the Nuremberg Laws. Jewish people were left with nothing to do but neither accept
their unfortunate fate nor to keep on finding a place; a country where they could hide including
the families of Margot and Lotte. But change started to happen when one of Lotte’s neighbor
asked them why not try to go to the Philippines, out of their desperation, her father immediately
went to the embassy and within 4 months was able to get their visas. Lotte and her family were
nothing but grateful because they were able to find the only country who would extend a help
and save them from their dark days. A month later, after all the struggle Margot and her family
went through, they were also able to go to the Philippines wherein she and her cousin will be
reunited and they will be safe from Hitler. While humanity was neglected in Germany there was
a soul willing to protect it, the Philippines then the U.S. Commonwealth opens it doors under the
leadership of Manuel L. Quezon.
This happened under the work of Manuel L. Quezon together with Paul McNutt who was the
U.S. High Commissioner. Since we are not a rich country, we do not have enough money to
accept refugees and Philippines was a commonwealth. While the U.S. retained the political
authority to issue visas, the Philippine Commonwealth retained the right to decide who are
allowed to enter the country which resulted to a plan wherein Philippines will provide a list of
jobs such as mechanics, doctors, dentists, etc. so that it will be legal. Undeterred by the many
obstacles, Quezon continued working enthusiastically for what we now know, the Open Door
Policy. This is where more and more Jewish families had escaped from the worsening of horrors
in Germany and among them is one of the last living Manilaner, Max Weissler who is also a
Jewish refugee and used to live as well in Breslau with his aunt because his relationship with his
parents isn’t good for the fact that they are always arguing wherein Max needed to squeeze in
which is not a good and ideal childhood. After his aunt was sent a letter that they needed to
leave because his father will be arrested, Max and his family went to Denmark in which they
were called tourists which isn’t true because they were also refugees that’s why the got
deported. Just like Lotte and Margot, Max and his family had found a way out, which is to go to
the Philippines.
While watching the interviews of Margot, Lotte and Max, you can really tell how happy they were
as a child when they landed here in the Philippines, they kept on mentioning a lot of Filipino
cultures that they have adapted such as “Larong Pinoy” wherein they learned to play
jackstones, sipa, piko, and many more. They were also able to adapt how Filipinos love dancing
and singing, wherein they also learned Filipino folk dances as well as Filipino songs. But what
caught my attention was, how they were treated by other Filipinos as a child, how these Filipino
people showed how welcome they are in this country to the point that at the times they are left
with nothing due to lack of financial, their Filipino classmates/friends are still willing to give them
whatever they could give. These stories really made me proud as a Filipino that when you hear
the word “Hospitable” the first thing that will come up to your mind is Filipinos. But this perfect
childhood of Margot, Lotte and Max were stopped when the Japanese went to the Philippines to
start a war wherein Philippines was declared an open city. It felt really bad knowing that these
children had to feel again what they felt when they were in Germany, that they kept on running
to be safe; to stay alive, I mean all they wanted was just a happy and normal life but whenever
they are about to have one, something is happening. However, these Japanese people are not
aware of the Jews, but they knew for a fact that these Jews came from the Germany which is
happened to be Japanese’s ally. That is why even they knew that these Jewish people already
had expired passports marked with big red “J” which is indicated as Jews, Japanese did not
consider them as enemies. However, that time, the problem of Jews is hunger. Before that war
is free enterprise, freedom of speech, freedom of movement but it was all taken out by the
Japanese wherein movements are limited; you to stay where you are, all the medias were
controlled. Margot, Lotte and Max had a really hard time trying to survive this chapter of their
lives, where they kept on being tortured, they are starving, some of their friends are dying in
front of them and the sad thing about it is that they cannot do anything, they cannot say
anything, they have nothing left to do but accept whatever is happening because that is the
least thing they could do to survive. We cannot say that they these 3 Manilaners are already
used to having this kind of terrorism around them because there is a huge difference between
what they experienced in Germany and here in the Philippines, there were no questions if they
are Jewish or Not, all of them are suffering under the same pain, their lives are equal to the lives
of Filipino people The battle of Manila was officially over on the 3 rd of March 1945, all military
posts of the enemy were cleared by the shared efforts of the American troops and the Filipino
guerillas. After the Japanese people where, Americans came in and that is where the liberation
began. Unfortunately, even Manuel L. Quezon tried to run the government despite in exile and
fought for the liberation of the Philippines, Quezon did not live to see the war. He died on
August 1, 1944 due to Tuberculosis.
Going back to the Holocaust, while these 3 Manilaners are suffering under the terrorism of
Japanese people and starvation, everything went worse back in Europe. Mass killing were
getting worse, because Hitler and his Nazi Party thought that the last thing they could do is to
eradicate the Jews. They were enclaved, they were put into camps, and there are slowly being
killed there. When this news reached Margot, Lotte and Max, they felt nothing but sadness. The
people who used to host them parties before they left, some of their friends were all eliminated;
died. Come to think of it, this second world war was really not an ideal time to be a “child”
because you are surrounded by violence, cruelty, tortures, mass killing without even knowing
what to do, or even how to accept and understand things the way you wanted to because it
would take an eternity to understand and to accept that losing love ones, friends, and
countrymen are kind of depressing but it had to happen.
These experience of Holocaust and Japanese occupation is too much for a child that time like
Margot, Lotte and Max. But they have no choice but to live everyday of their life acting like
there’s nothing happening; like they are not frightened. Out of all the people who died in the
Holocaust as well in the ruling of Japanese, these 3 Manilaners were lucky enough to continue
their lives and none of these survivals will happen without the help of the Philippines, without the
help of the late president Manuel L. Quezon. They feel nothing but gratitude towards the
Philippines and the Filipino people for they felt that they are welcome in this country, there were
no racist, there were no discrimination, they have been treated as if they were also Filipino, they
were treated like a family. They have been given the respect that was deprived from them, the
respect they deserve. Leaving the Philippines who has happened to be the safe haven for these
Margot, Lotte and Max was really hard, they’ve been always reminded what it felt to be a
Filipino and be surrounded by Filipino, but all great things must come to an end, they needed to
leave. Their lives must go on. Even though that the time has come where Margot, Lotte and
Max needed to leave the Philippines, all of them do not regret they stayed here and learned to
adapt Filipino culture, even though they have witnessed the occupation of the Japanese people,
they know for a fact that Philippines will always have a special place in their hearts.
Watching these 4 amazing episodes of the documentary The Last Manilaners opened my eyes
about the untold history of the Philippines. Living in today’s generation will always make you
curious of how it was way back then; how Filipino people live, how they treated each other, how
they overcome the trauma of witnessing wars and being occupied by different countries.
Sometimes I really doubt the ability of Filipino to survive a certain war, as what have mentioned,
we are not rich, we aren’t even that known to other countries unlike U.S., China, Europe, etc.
We Filipinos may not be rich unlike the other countries, we may not be that much of known, and
we might not have the capacity and the ability to fight back, but I just proved that despite of the
lack of these things helping each other and valuing our fellow Filipinos and all the people around
us made us much stronger. Just like what happening today is, an on going crisis due to the
Corona Virus, and the Eruption of Taal Volcano last month, we cannot stop dark days to
happen, but we see to it that no matter what happen, we all get through it because we stand as
one, and we never forgot to fight these circumstances with smiles in our faces.