# LLMs-Full.txt - Full Content for Project Pages # Generated on: 2026-02-11T07:29:58.945Z # Total pages: 5 --- ## URL: https://www.aquestionofsurvival.com/home ### Title: Home ### Page ID: 3910 ### Content: # [A QUESTION OF SURVIVAL](https://aquestionofsurvival.com) ## two part documentary A documentary film about the legacy of the Holocaust in the Balkans, as seen through the eyes -and conflicting memories- of three Bulgarian Jewish survivors in New York. Chaim Zemach, a cellist; Robert Bakish, an engineer; and Misha Avramoff, a social worker on the Lower East side of Manhattan, were living with their families in Bulgaria during the country’s alliance with the Nazis. When in March 1943 the Bulgarian government first postponed and ultimately cancelled the imminent deportation of the entire Bulgarian Jewish community of 48 000, Chaim, Robert, and Misha were ages 5, After the war their families left Bulgaria. The three young men only grasped how close they came to death after they arrived in New York and learned the fate of millions of European Jews. Ever since, they have struggled to place their unusual story of survival into the more conventional narrative of the Shoah. The realization of how they narrowly escaped the death camps has left them questioning the value of their experiences and to debate whether they are true Holocaust "survivors." - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") --- ## URL: https://www.aquestionofsurvival.com/about ### Title: About ### Page ID: 3911 ### Content: # [A QUESTION OF SURVIVAL](https://aquestionofsurvival.com) ## two part documentary ### DIRECTORS STATEMENT Despite the vast literature and films on the history and legacy of the Holocaust, the story of what happened in the Balkans remains little known and relatively unexplored. The devastating effects of the Nazi’s “Final Solution” on the small, predominantly Sephardic Jewish communities in that region are evident in the ruins of once-thriving synagogues across Bulgaria and the other Balkan countries, the untended Jewish cemeteries, and the memorial plaques, which often have unclear or misleading texts. The synagogue in the town of Bourgas, where Chaim Zemach was born and spent his childhood, is now an art gallery. The Sofia synagogue, the largest Sephardic temple in Europe, where Robert Bakish’s great grandfather was once the rabbi, can barely function due to a diminished congregation. To raise a Minyan, a Jewish tradition that requires a minimum of 10 men to conduct a religious service, male tourists or even women are often enlisted. What many people don’t realize is that during WWII Bulgaria was the only country which cancelled the scheduled deportation of its Jewish citizens to the death camps. Since then the nation has prided itself on the survival of Bulgarian Jews with much focus on what the government did to save them, not on what it didn’t do. The short version: After enacting harsh antisemitic legislation in 1941-1942, in March 1943 the Bulgarian government rounded up and handed over to its ally, Nazi Germany, 11,343 Jews from Macedonia and Northern Greece, territories Bulgaria occupied during the war. They all perished at Treblinka. Up next were the 48,000 Bulgarian Jews, who had been living peacefully in Bulgarian territories since they were expelled from Spain in 1492. After public outcry from a handful of prominent politicians, from the Orthodox Church hierarchy, and from ordinary citizens, in March 1943 the government called off the deportation of Bulgarian Jews, thus sparing their lives. What is easily swept under the rug is the fact that the Bulgarian government also took actions to target Bulgarian Jews with the Law for the Defence of the Nation, forced them to wear yellow stars, seized their property and businesses, and ultimately attempted to send them to death camps in compliance with Nazi cohorts. It was not until tremendous pressure was applied by public outcry and by a small group of intellectuals, politicians and clergy that the government caved. When in 1948 the communist regime fully established itself, the government took control of the narrative, using only its heroic aspects to promote Bulgaria’s standing in the world. Until 1989 Bulgaria remained behind the Iron Curtain; access to its archives was rare and minimal. It was only after the fall of the communist regime that access was finally allowed, but by then the “official” narrative of the Holocaust had already been formulated. The little known and “unusual” survival of the 48,000 Bulgarian Jews sounded too unbelievable and unreal to fit into that narrative. It also posed very uncomfortable and uneasy questions, such as: what was the role of public resistance in saving the Jewish population? Why didn't similar resistance happen in other countries? It also left the survivors of this story to grapple with many and unsettling questions: Who saved us? Why did we survive while others didn’t? How does our story fit into the larger narrative of the Holocaust? To this day, the Bulgarian story remains little known outside of Bulgaria, its tremendous value lost in controversy and confusion. ***A Question of Survival*** aims to shine a light on the relevance of this chapter in history to our current political climate. Looking at that chapter today one can’t help but experience a sense of deja vu. With the rise of antisemitism and totalitarianism as a result of political uncertainty across the world, minorities are again being scapegoated for political gain, and the role of public opinion in protecting them is ever so critical. Will public resistance be mobilized this time around to protect human and minority rights? Or will most citizens remain indifferent and complicit with the actions of their government? For those of us who are living through turbulent days, these questions remain wide open. - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") --- ## URL: https://www.aquestionofsurvival.com/filmmakers ### Title: Filmmakers ### Page ID: 3912 ### Content: # [A QUESTION OF SURVIVAL](https://aquestionofsurvival.com) ## two part documentary Elka Nikolova was born in Bulgaria and studied psychology at the University of Sofia before she moved to the United States in 1994. In 2000 she received her MA in Media Studies, with a focus on film production at the New School in New York. She has worked in film and television in New York since 2003. Her documentary film, "Binka: To Tell a Story About Silence," completed in 2007, premiered at MOMA in New York. She co-produced and edited the documentary film “Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon” directed by Andrea Simon completed in 2017. She is currently working on a two part documentary film "A Question of Survival" about the legacy of the Holocaust in the Balkans through the eyes of survivors from Bulgaria and Greece. Vanyo Georgiev was born in Bulgaria and graduated from the New Bulgarian University in Sofia with a BA in film and television production. He worked as a cinematographer for Bulgarian Documentary Studio "Vreme" and the TV series "8 &/1/2," produced by Film Studio Boyana, before moving to New York in 2006. In New York he works as a freelance DP and Lightning Director for Bank of America Video and Broadcast, and on various documentary productions. Ben Wolf’s work as a cinematographer on documentary flms range from Emmy winner “Baring It All” (Dir: Patricia Zagarella) to “Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of RickyJay” (Molly Bernstein & Alan Edelstein), a Kino Lorber release, as well as “Amsterdam Stories USA” (dirs: Rob Rombout & Rogier van Eck), a 6-hour road movie of small town America. He helped develop and shoot a web series for The Indian National Congress Party entitled “Billion And One Voices," a collage of modern India. Lora Myers is a writer, film producer, and educator. As a producer and writer, she has worked in the USA, Italy, and Brazil on numerous award winning documentaries, public television specials and feature film scripts. She is currently developing a song-based app for teaching English literacy. Joseph Benatov is Lecturer in Foreign Languages in the Modern Hebrew Language Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation is titled “Looking in the Iron Mirror: Eastern Europe in the American Imaginary, 1958-2001." Vanya Gezenko an expert at the Central State Archives of Bulgaria, and specializes in the Jewish archives. She has consulted on many international documentaries and feature film productions. - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") - [Home](/ "Home") - [About](/about "About") - [Filmmakers](/filmmakers "Filmmakers") --- ## URL: https://www.aquestionofsurvival.com/reset-password-page ### Title: Reset password page ### Page ID: 1706367 ### Content: Reset Password Reset Password