The documentary “Synagonistis. Greek Jews in the National Resistance”, was created to complement the JMG temporary exhibition under the same title. They constitute part of a cycle of events, organized within the framework of a three-year-long programmatic cooperation between the Museum and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens.
The idea for the creation of this documentary was developed while processing the research material and designing the exhibition “Synagonistis. Greek Jews in the National Resistance”. Exhibition and documentary comprise two products born of a common research process. In essence, it is the same story, narrated in two different ways. Further to unpublished photographic material and valuable documents, the documentary was designed with the primary goal to utilize certain of the most important historical evidence, which are part of the collections of the JMG. For the creation of the film, 17 were included, out of a total 25 audiovisual testimonies given by men and women from several Jewish communities of our country, who participated in the National Resistance. The testimonies were recorded within a period of 5 years and constitute today a part of the Oral History Archive of the JMG. Film director David Gavriilidis created a mosaic of narrations, which follow in a lively way the difficult and attractive path of the Jewish fighters, from the darkness of the Occupation and the nascence of the Resistance, to the escape from the ghettos, the ascent to the mountains, and to the hardships, the camaraderie and the hard battles most of them fought against the occupational army, as partisans. In the incomparable way of the moving image, the documentary conjoins the testimonies of people, who were never at the same place at the same time, and yet, they converse with each other and they will always remain in communication with each other, as “Synagonistes”. While the exhibition responds to the duty, the deep obligation and the sincere wish to honour those who escaped the Holocaust and fought against the Nazis side by side with thousands of their Christian compatriots, the documentary is literary the ark, which contains their voices, their gestures, their facial expressions; the same passion which imbued their actions then, for which we honour them today.
