Bardejov: From History to the Silver Screen

In the small town of Bardejov, Slovakia, life once unfolded as it does in any small community; children’s giggles filled the streets, neighbors shared meals, and families gathered for the holidays. But in 1942, Bardejov forever changed. What had once been a town of calm and community became a center for dehumanization and impossible choices.
With the looming threat of Nazi Expansionism and Hlinka Guards from the pro-Nazi Slovak People’s Party, Jewish survival meant confronting questions no parent, no person, should ever face: How far would you go to protect your child? How much would you risk to save the lives of those you love and your community?
These painful questions form the backbone of Bardejov, a new film produced by Holocaust survivor and Bardejov native Mr. Emil A. Fish and directed by Israeli-American filmmaker Danny A. Abeckaser.
At the heart of Bardejov is the story of Raphael Lowy, the president of the Jewish Community, who, in 1942, received orders from the Slovak Hlinka Guard to assemble all unmarried Jewish girls in the town for transport to a ‘shoe factory’ in the East.
After much debate between his fellow Jewish leaders, the women are guided to pack their bags and prepare for their journey. That is, until Lowy uncovers the true destination of this train ride: Auschwitz.
Lowy and the girls, faced with fear and mortality, have an epiphany born from desperation. What do the Germans fear more than the Jews? Typhus. To escape death, they must face it head-on and inject themselves with that very disease.
The hope was horrifyingly simple, an illness so feared by the Germans would force their quarantine in local hospitals, sparing them from the certain death and desecration awaiting them in Auschwitz concentration camp.
This plan unfolds in a heart-wrenching scene; led by actor Robert Davi (Raphael Lowy) and actress Emma Renana-Bardea (Helena Schondorf). The intensity is palpable, heightened by Renana-Bardea’s impeccable performance. Her eyes conveyed a remarkable blend of fear, uncertainty, and unwavering resolve that stuck with me days after watching.
Full of moments like these, the film was released on March 19, 2024, just five months after the October 7th massacre, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. The timing of the film’s production also mirrored another historical event. While writing the script, the coronavirus pandemic triggered global quarantines, echoing the quarantines of the typhus epidemics.
I was blessed to meet with some of Bardejov’s creators for a discussion on what this film meant to them. For the cast and crew, Bardejov was not just another film; it carried a profound responsibility and honor. For Mr. Emil Fish, however, it held even greater significance.
Since founding the Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee in 2006 and his appointment by President Obama to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, Fish has dedicated his life to preserving and documenting the Jewish heritage in Bardejov and remembering its victims.
Fish independently produced this project, lending not just his financial resources but also his journey as a survivor returning to Bardejov for the first time since the war.
This film was a labor of love, decades in the making, and evidently, a part of his soul.
Fish also established a Holocaust memorial in Bardejov, honoring the victims and the gentile residents who risked their lives to save Jews. Among those remembered is Raphael Lowy, who just two years after orchestrating the typhoid ruse, was personally deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. The exact mechanism of Lowy’s murder is debated.
Lowy and his wife are survived by three sons. Although Lowy had four children in total, one tragically perished in the Holocaust. Of the surviving sons, two have grandchildren.
This story of resistance is unlike what many assume a story of resistance to be; rather than fighting with weapons, as Lowy once suggested, they chose a moral route- one born of courage and ingenuity.
Through this choice, they were able not only to save hundreds of Jews from Bardejov but also to maintain their town’s structural integrity even after the last Jew in Bardejov, Mayer Spira, died in 2005.
Spira’s passing marked the end of a chapter, but it was not the first time that Bardejov’s once-thriving Jewish community had disappeared. The town has a long history of Jewish presence, expulsions, returns, and eventual fading dating back to 1247.
In 1526, Jews were expelled from all major towns in the geographic area of modern Slovakia. Jews then returned in the late 16th century, only to be expelled in 1631, and re-established in 1716. By the 18th century, the Jewish population of Bardejov thrived, with 42 Jews living in 15 houses, and the founding of a school, synagogue, and poorhouse.
In 1806, Bardejov’s Jewish community was officially founded. The town then even drew the attention of Austrian Empress Elizabeth, wife of Franz Joseph I, who visited a Jewish-owned spa for a day of relaxation.
A century later, there were over 1,700 Jews in the town, with a flourishing culture, and economy. This came with new institutions such as printing presses, an expanded eruv network, a charity organization, new synagogues, and various social activity spaces for sports, and zionist activism.
In 1930, 2,264 Jews called Bardejov home.
Home didn’t remain that way for long.
596 miles from Bardejov, in the country over, Germany saw a substantial change to their government. The Nazi Party, in 1932, became the largest political group in the German Parliament with 230 representatives. As the Weimar Republic died down, the government ruled by emergency decree as they lacked a parliamentary majority. This caused significant volatility in the economy, political landscape, and voter outlook. Dissatisfaction with the government coupled with the rise of antisemitism, aided the Nazi’s rise to power.
With the majority of Germany’s citizens supporting the Nazi Party, the president of Germany appointed Hitler as Chancellor in 1933. This set the stage for Nazi Dictatorship in Germany following the President’s death.
On March 22, 1933, Dachau Concentration Camp, the first and longest operational camp by the Nazis, was established. Around this time Jewish businesses in Germany were boycotted, Jews were excluded from civil service, and Jewish students were largely removed from public schools with the excuse of “overcrowding.”
The horrors continued with book burnings and the release of the Nuremberg Race Laws, a legal system allowing for discrimination of Jews, painting them as not only a different religion but a different race.
Jews were no longer seen as neighbors and fellow humans; they were seen as animals.
In 1938 and on, Nazi Germany occupied Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, Austria, Greece and Poland.
Hitler did not stop there, he chose Czechoslovakia to have further terroristic and territorial expansion. Helped by the Hlinka Slovak People’s Party, Hitler got his way. Slovakia became an independent state on March 14th, 1939, with a contingency that the government would be a puppet state for Nazi Germany.
Anti-Jewish laws were immediately enacted.
This brings us to 1942, and the true story highlighted in the film, Bardejov.
Mr. Fish, who not only produced the film, but also appears at the beginning and end visiting his hometown, has a unique story of his own, which also originates in Bardejov.
Fish, born in 1935, grew up in a Hasidic family in Bardejov, Slovakia, alongside about 3,000 other Jewish residents. He recalls experiencing antisemitism as early as 4 years old, witnessing Jewish students being beaten on the streets and bullied in public schools, long before antisemitism was officially acknowledged as an issue in the town.
In 1942, the Jews of Bardejov faced deportation to Auschwitz unless they were deemed essential workers. Fish’s family was spared, as his father owned a business that supplied groceries, lumber, and railroad ties. However, two years later, a decree was issued forcing all Jews to relocate to West Slovakia, facilitating their eventual arrest and deportation. The Fish family was forced to move to the small city of Nitra in western Slovakia.
On an errand, Fish’s mother was stopped by the Slovakian Police and accused of being Jewish. A railroad guard, who she knew, stepped in convincing the officer she was a Gentile. This allowed her to return home and once again move her family to escape danger.
In the beginning of 1944, the family sought refuge in a barn attic, and a few months later, in a farmhouse, both owned by Christian families.
Unfortunately, neither option proved safe enough to stay in. The farmer, drunk in a tavern, boasted about the money he had earned from hiding Jews.Once again, the Fish family was forced to relocate, prompting them to hire a guide to lead them through the forest from their hideout to the train station in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava.
On the way, the guide was stopped and shot by a Forest Ranger, who eventually let the Fish Family go in exchange for money and a fur coat.
Upon arriving at the train station, the Fish family saw German soldiers waiting to take the same train to Bratislava. In a desperate attempt to avoid being identified as Jews, Emil and his family pretended to be peasants, hoping to blend in. The soldiers, uninterested, ignored them, allowing them to board the train and reach Bratislava. In October of 1944, an apartment owner turned the family into the Gestapo, causing their arrest.
The family was split, with his father on one train to Buchenwald concentration camp and his mother, sister, and himself on a cattle car train to Auschwitz. On the way to Auschwitz, the train was diverted and Emil, his mother and his sister, Ann, were redirected to a different concentration camp known as Bergen-Belsen.
Bergen-Belsen was hell on earth. Corpses were piled in front of the camp barracks, and Nazis barked orders as if the Jews were nothing more than cattle or criminals. People died daily from diseases caused by starvation and the brutal conditions. Even standing during roll call was a dangerous task, as every moment was life and death, with many getting the latter.
Fish, his mother, and his sister persevered in the camp until April 15, 1945, when they were liberated by the British.
When returning to their hometown Bardejov, they were reunited with their father, who had miraculously also survived.
After two and a half years attending school in Israel by himself, Fish joined his family in Montreal. Eventually, the family settled in Los Angeles.
Once a father, Fish faced the difficult task of coming to terms with the terrors he experienced, as his children hoped to learn more about their family history by visiting his hometown of Bardejov. Once resistant, he finally gave in, and alongside his family returned to Bardejov for the first time in decades.
Upon his arrival, he hoped to show his children important personal sites, such as the cemetery where his Grandmother was buried, the synagogues, the yeshivas, and other significant buildings for religious use. However, the only accessible building was the synagogue where his Bar Mitzvah was held.
The synagogue was beautiful and fully intact, thanks to the courageous act of a non-Jewish woman who blocked the police from entering during the war. The reasons for her brave action remain unknown, but her selfless deed ensured the synagogue remained untouched and preserved in its full glory.
After this experience, Fish, overcome with emotion, made a promise to himself and Bardejov’s victims to honor their memory and restore their heritage.
Fish, like many holocaust survivors and their descendants, believes strongly that history is not just a collection of distant memories to dust off when it’s nice to reminisce. It is the very foundation upon which we build our future.
In his words, “It’s very hard to know where you’re going, if you don’t know where you came from.”
Fish, Shmuel Lynn (screenwriter), and I also discussed the increasing parallels between the events of the film, Fish’s story, and the political and social issues we face today. Fish was quick to respond:
“Everybody has the same aim in life. They want to have a family, raise their kids, feed them, and love them. It’s human nature. The biggest thing is, don’t be prejudiced for no reason. [But today] young people are protesting things they don’t really understand.”
Lynn chimed in next, “You have Jews with nowhere else to go. There’s nowhere to turn. They’ve been used and lulled into a sense of complacency and security. And then, overnight, all the promises are gone. That’s it. Allies [that] we’ve invested in relationships as Jews and as a nation of Israel, like in the United Nations, American politics, the partnerships we’ve made based on the cause of diversity and freedom, have been silent when we need them.”
A recent report by World Zionist Organization Chairman Yaakov Hagoel and Jewish Agency Chairman Maj. Gen. Doron Almog highlighted a staggering 288% surge in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States. The report focuses on documented cases recorded after October 7, 2023, revealing over 10,000 incidents within the U.S. These alarming numbers peaked in April 2024 and represent an all-time high for recorded data related to anti-Semitism since tracking began in 1979.
Having lived through the horrors of a time when hatred against Jews reached catastrophic levels, Fish sees troubling echoes of the past in today’s rising tide of violence and discrimination.
“About 20 years ago, I started talking about the Holocaust, speaking all over the world…from Dubai to Rwanda, to high schools and universities, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. I used to believe that ‘never again’ could never happen. But after the Rwandan genocide, and then October 7th, I changed my mind. ‘Never Again’ does happen. It happens today, in countries where entire tribes are slaughtered… and nobody pays attention. People don’t talk about it because it’s politically inconvenient. It happens in Africa, and in many other places like Israel on October 7, but for political reasons, it’s suppressed. It’s a sad reality. ‘Never again’ is a myth, in my opinion, and right now, it’s happening again.”
Robert Davi, the Catholic-born lead actor of Bardejov, , has grown increasingly concerned about the safety of his Jewish friends and neighbors amid rising tensions.
“I remember growing up that the holocaust was something that people saw as a cautionary tale, but I saw over the years that being diminished. People don’t want to be reminded. They want to forget it.”
The resurgence of anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence, coupled with this disturbing trend of Holocaust denial and revisionism, has led many to question whether society has truly learned from the past. Yet, even in this darkness, there is hope.
There are individuals like Emil Fish, the producer of the film Bardejov, and Rabbi Shmuel Lynn, its writer, who take all this negativity and transform it into a powerful work of art that educates on the Holocaust, and fosters empathy in audiences.
There are gentiles, like Robert Davi, who understand that the rise of antisemitism is a humanitarian issue and do not take kindly to it being swept under the rug.
Bardejov’s story, from the pages of history to the silver screen, reveals one of the most powerful truths of all.
There is nothing we cannot overcome when we stand united.