Holocaust in the USSR

Synopsis

Holocaust in the USSR is a documentary project on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union consisting of 8 testimonials for a cumulative length of 11 and a half hours. A record of nearly 100 events that took place in the huge region between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains.

It encompasses the collective fate of some 2,700,000 Jews – almost half of the 6,000,000 Holocaust victims.

The project uses a unique cinematic approach. All events are brought by the witnesses who were photographed at the event venue and for the same period of time as the event time.

The final film of the project – “The Mystery of the Black Book” – tells about Stalin’s concealment of the extent and methods of killing Jews in the Soviet territories by the Germans and local collaborators.

About the Director

Born in Riga, Latvia. In 1970 Maftsir was arrested by the KGB and sentenced to one year in prison on charges of Zionist activity. Immigrated in 1971. Graduated from the first graduating class of the Department of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University.

For years Maftsir worked as a producer in the Israeli film Service. From 1994 to 1999, he was the Service manager.

In 2009, Maftsir founded and until 2014 managed the documentary film department at the Haifa WIZO Academic Center.

Management positions: Director of the Department of Culture and Art, Ministry of Education and Culture (1998-1999). Director General of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption (1999-2001). Head of Delegation of the Jewish Agency in Russia, Belarus and the Baltic States (2003-2005). Director of the Yad Vashem Project to recover the names of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust in the Soviet Union territories (2006-2012).

In recent years Maftsir has been working exclusively on a documentary project on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union.

He is the producer of over 200 documentary films and television documentaries.

Artist Statement

We have completed the production of a documentary project on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. 8 testimonials-cumulative length 11 and a half hours. A record of nearly 100 events that took place in the huge region between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains. We tried to bring about the collective fate of some 2,700,000 Jews – almost half of the 6,000,000 Holocaust victims. We chose a unique cinematic approach. All events are brought by the witnesses who were photographed at the event venue and for the same period of time as the event time. The final film of, The Mystery of the Black Book, tells about Stalin’s concealment of the extent and methods of killing Jews in the Soviet territories by the Germans and local collaborators. We believe that the materials of the project films have the ability to acknowledge to many public the hidden truth about the Holocaust. Get to know the real map – which includes, a part from death camps, concentration camps and ghettos in Central and Western Europe–more than 1,000 Soviet cities and villages where the Jews were murdered.