Reference Type: Audiovisual Material
Author: Boris Dratva
Year: 1996
Title: Chernovitz
Type: Documentary
Short Title: Chernovitz
Size/Length: 55'
Keywords: Jewish minority, Holocaust, Documentary
Abstract: Grenoble, France, late-1943. Dr. Fritz and Annie Finaly handed over their children - two-and-a-half year old Robert and eighteen-month-old Gerald - into the guardianship of a neighbor. In February 1944, Fritz and Annie were arrested by Gestapo agents and never seen again. Records show they were killed in Auschwitz. Robert and Gerald were later sent to the local abbot, who placed them in the Catholic Church orphanage in Grenoble. At the end of the war, a relative requested that the children be returned to her, but her request and those of other family members, were ignored. Robert and Gerald were formally baptized. The following years saw a fierce, long and exhausting battle to return the children to Judaism and their family in Israel. In the autumn of 2006, the Finaly brothers confront their past for the first time, in the Grenoble courtyard of the Catholic orphanage. 64-year-old Gad is now a Kiryat Haim pensioner, and 66-year-old Robert is a senior physician at the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. The film "Tour de Finaly" recounts the journey of Robert and Gad Finaly - now adults with children and grandchildren of their own - to the geographical milestones of their childhood. The film winds between France, Israel, Italy and Austria, incorporating rare archival footage. It brings the brothers together with the people who participated in the struggle over their rescue and identity - attempting to portray their story from a contemporary point-of-view.
URL: http://db.yadvashem.org/films/item.html?language=en&itemId=82314
Access Date: 06.10.2014
Name of Database: The Visual Center - Online Film Database
Database Provider: Yad Vashem
Language: Ukrainian,
Russian