Dova Cahan (Israel)
I was born in Romania in June 17, 1947 but when I was seven months old my parents left Romania because of the Communism and not being able to remain in Palestine, just three months before the proclamation of the State of Israel, they found refugee in Asmara, Eritrea an ex Italian colony on East Africa. I grew up there and I lived for twenty years being a student in the Italian schools. At the age of twenty with the Six Days War in June 1967 I moved to Israel to continue my university studies and I remain to live here till today.
Title: A Zionist Journey from Romania to Eritrea, 2010, 38:00
This documentary film is based on the story of my late father, Herscu Saim Cahan, an active Zionist from Romania, who dedicated this life to Hanoar Hazioni Organization since his childhood. Between the two world wars in Europe he organized ships to bring the young Romanian Jewish called Halutzim to the land of Israel to build the future State. During the worst period of the human history, Romania too was invaded by the legionaries who were partners of the Nazi and although my father escaped this atrocity he worked to help all his comrades caught on labour work. He organized public canteens in Bucarest were could be given help to those who escaped from the concentration camps and pogroms in the northern part of Romania. He left the country on February 1948 with his wife and his two small daughter towards Palestine with the aim to remain there. But unfortunately the British who ruled this land at the time did not allowed him to remain and he had to find refugee in Asmara, Eritrea an ex Italian colony of the west of Africa where de died in March 3, 1974 just before the penetration of the Communist party also in Eritrea which brought to the end of the Ethiopian Empire and of the Emperor Haile Selassie..