The Seventh Million - The Israelis and the Holocaust

A few years ago journalist Tom Segev published the arresting book 'The Seventh Million'. In his book he accuses the Jewish leaders of Palestine at the time of the holocaust of giving priority to the foundation of a Jewish state over the drama that was taking place in Europe. By doing so, Segev mercilessly unmasked the Zionist ideal. After the war there still was not much room in the new state for the survivors of the shoah. In the eyes of the Zionists these people had allowed being 'led like lambs to the slaughter'. The Eichmann trial in 1960 was a breaking point and a catalyst for national solidarity. For the first time witnesses to the WW II horrors were being publicly heard. This film is the cinematic reflection of this inquiry into delicate and, until recently, closed chapters of Israeli history. The film elicited fierce discussions and was initially considered too controversial by the Israeli state television for transmission.