By Philip Jay

More than 1,000 Jews fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany found refuge in the faraway Philippines, thanks to the government’s “open door” policy and that is what Israel plans to honour with a monument this month.

The modern structure of three steel doors, frames and marble floor tiles commemorates the “courage, hospitality and the determination” of the Philippines to give humanitarian support for European Jews seeking refuge from the Holocaust, the Israeli Embassy stated.

“The warm hospitality of the Filipino people undoubtedly shed light in the moment of one of the darkest and most diffi cult periods in Jewish history,” an embassy official said.

The “Open Doors” monument, designed by Filipino artist Jun Yee, is scheduled to be unveiled 21 June at the Rishon Lezion Holocaust Park in central Israel.

“It is my hope, and indeed my expectation, that the people of the Philippines will have in the future every reason to be glad that when the time of need came, their country was willing to extend a hand of welcome,” President Manuel L. Quezon - 23 April 1940, Marikina City.

President Manuel L. Quezon fully understood the crisis that the Jews were facing at that time. To reinforce this open door policy, President Quezon built a housing community for Jewish refugees in Marikina, in 1939, and allotted a farm and large settlement area in Mindanao for Jewish refugees before the outbreak of World War II.

The Filipinos expressed their indignation at the persecution of the Jews. On 17 November 1938, hundreds of Filipinos held a rally in Manila to express their moral outrage and to denounce the Kristallnacht. These episodes in the journey of Jews to the Philippines to escape the Holocaust were documented and thoroughly discussed in the book entitled Escape to Manila by Mr. Frank Ephraim, published in 2003.

Mr. Ephraim’s book gave the inspiration and vision to Ambassador Antonio Modena to launch in 2005 a campaign for the remembrance of the Philippine’s humanitarian support for the Jews. Ambassador Modena passed away unexpectedly in February 2007 but he had already started the process of building this Philippine monument in Israel. The Organizing Committee for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Philippines and Israel undertook to complete this vision of Ambassador Modena. A panel of judges chose “Open Doors” by Mr. Jun Yee for the top prize from a field of eight entries coming from top sculptors and architects including a Philippine national artist.