A powerful new short documentary, The 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children, has just been released online by the HispanoJewish Foundation of Madrid and the Jewish community of Porto.
It sheds light on a little-known but harrowing chapter in Jewish history – one that is especially relevant in light of the October 7, 2023, kidnappings by Hamas of 251 people from Israel, with 58 still being held after 600 days in captivity. The film is dedicated to the hostages and their families.
The movie starts as Spanish Jews in 1492 are given just weeks to convert to Christianity or flee, and over 100,000 seek shelter in Portugal, where they are met with more cruelty and oppression. The film, which is a docu-drama in Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew, with English narration and English subtitles, focuses on 2,000 Jewish children, aged eight and under, who were seized by order of King Joao II of Portugal in 1493.
Their families were unable to pay the high ransom demanded by the Portuguese crown. As punishment, their children were forcibly converted and deported to the uninhabited and crocodile-infested island of Sao Tomé, an island in the Gulf of Guinea, 7,500 km. from home.
The tragedy of the deported children
The film details the torments of the ship voyage, where they were kept next to violent convicts and given contaminated water and inadequate food. Disease was rampant, and only the strongest survived.
Hundreds perished on the way, with the ship’s crew tossing their dead bodies overboard every morning. Their parents, left behind in Europe, pleaded with the Portuguese king for their return, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
“The agony of having our children stolen is something Jews have felt many times in history,” David Hatchwell Altaras, president of the HispanoJewish Foundation, said. “We can only imagine the anguish of the parents of those 2,000 children, taken by force and shipped across the ocean centuries ago.
“Through this film, we can connect to Jews taken by force throughout history, including, and especially, those ripped from their homes and the Nova music festival on October 7.”
The story is told through documents by Portuguese historians and leading Jewish scholars of the time, including Isaac Abravanel, Samuel Usque, and Shlomo Ibn Verga. The film also captures the brutal conditions on the volcanic island, where toxic gases, wild animals, and even 10-m. crocodiles – described by 16th-century physician Amato Lusitano – posed constant threats to survival. In the Jewish world, Sao Tomé became known as “I Ha Timsha’im,” (“The Island of the Lizards”).
Despite the horrors, some of the children survived. Their descendants went on to build thriving industries in sugar, wine, meat, and cheese – a powerful testament to their resilience.
Preserving and sharing Jewish history
Michael Rothwell, director of the Jewish and Holocaust Museums of Porto, said, “Every generation of Jews has a duty to preserve and share our history. What happened in 1493 is a forgotten tragedy but it speaks directly to the traumas we face today. We must remember and use these stories of resilience to face our current challenges as a people.”
Through this film – directed by Luis Ismael and written by Hugo Vaz, the HispanoJewish Foundation, and the Jewish community of Porto – the producers said that they “seek to bridge past and present, linking a historical injustice with a modern-day tragedy, and to reaffirm a collective commitment to memory, identity, and endurance.”
This story deserves to be a feature film, and I hope the organizations that funded it find a way to make it into a full-length dramatic movie, focusing on a few key characters that can bring this fascinating and horrific story to life for international movie audiences.
The film can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=5dmff7yl4Uc.
