Philippines’ role in saving Jews during the Holocaust

Two recent articles detail the role of the Philippines in helping Jews escape the Holocaust by allowing them to migrate to the Philippines:

How the Philippines saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, by Madison Park, appeared on CNN Online on 12 February 2015. Photos, videos and commentary by Lotte Cassel Hershfield are featured. Posted on philSTAR, on the same day, was Philippines to the rescue: 6 tales of Jews’ escape from Nazis, by Camille Diola. The six people referenced are Hans Hoeffler, Ralph Preiss, Margot Cassel Pins, Gordon Lester, Mary Faquhar and Celia “Topsy” Black.

For more information about this topic:

Articles on 70-year anniversary of STIC Liberation

The reminiscences of George Fisher appear in the appeared today in The Frederick News-Post. The article, titled Interned Americans freed 70 years ago with help of Frederick veteran, describes what Fisher, then a 25-year-old Army private with the 1st Calvary Division, experienced the night that the American tanks broke through the gates of Santo Tomas Internment Camp on 3 February 1945. The short article can be read at this link.

Another article appears today on GMA News Online, Survivors return to PHL 70 years after liberation from UST prison camp. The article begins “for three years during World War II, American Kathy Elfstrom Cronquist lived on the grounds of the University of Santo Tomas, which the Japanese occupiers had turned into a prison camp for over 4,000 American and British civilians living in Manila.

Cronquist was one of the former prisoners of war who visited UST on Tuesday, exactly 70 years since Filipino and American forces liberated the Santo Tomas Internment Camp (STIC) on February 3, 1945.” This article can be read at this link.

Another short article, from Coconuts Manila, is titled 20 internees and families to visit UST today on Battle of Manila anniversary. Unfortunately, it doesn’t name the 20 internees who made this trip, but, luckily, there is a follow-up story which also appears: Battle of Manila survivors, 70 years later. This article profiles Joan Bennett Chapman, Roi Doolan, Tim Crosby, Gerry Ann Schwede and Sascha Jean Weinzheimer Jansen. Click the article titles above to link to the online stories.

Other stories that appeared recently include the Philippine Daily Inquirer article titled “Seize the day” people: Kids of war revisit UST (former internees mentioned include George Baker) and Muscatine man recalls liberating camp 70 years ago this week, which details the reminiscences of former Pfc. Bob Harrison on the STIC liberation and the Battle of Manila.