Honorable Mr. Morgenthau

Feature documentary
A film by Hilan Warshaw

“Honorable Mr. Morgenthau is a spellbinding, illuminating and timely documentary biopic on Henry Morgenthau, Jr., a Holocaust hero who deserves to be better known…. Director Hilan Warshaw combines archival footage and narration to explain the events that led Morgenthau to be an instrumental figure in the creation of the War Refugee Board which funded many daring rescue operations during the Holocaust…. Honorable Mr. Morgenthau feels like a suspense thriller during the second half which, together with the stylish editing, makes the film more cinematic… Bravo to Honorable Mr. Morgenthau.“ –NYC Movie Guru http://nycmovieguru.com/sept13th24.html#honorable

“Honorable Mr. Morgenthau… Kindly grant authority for us to come to the U.S.A. For us, it will mean no more and no less than a possibility to live.”

–Ernest Meisel, Letter to Henry Morgenthau Jr. from Frankenthal, Germany, September 19, 1937

HONORABLE MR. MORGENTHAU is a new feature-length documentary about American immigration policy during the Holocaust, as told through the lens of one American’s extraordinary experience. Throughout most of the 1930s and World War II, the United States government actively worked to ensure that the influx of European Jews to America stayed well below America’s official immigration quota from that part of the world. This acknowledged policy– rooted in a variety of political concerns, as well as frequently transparent anti-Semitism– left millions of individuals with no haven from the Nazi terror, and emboldened Hitler to transition from a policy of Jewish emigration to extermination.

Few people had a closer view of these troubling events than the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. A devoted friend to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the only Jewish member of the Cabinet, Morgenthau helped craft the New Deal economic policies that saved millions of Americans from the Great Depression. A non-observant and proudly assimilated American Jew, he was careful to stay neutral about Jewish issues– knowing that FDR did not take kindly to advisors who “pull(ed) any sob stuff” regarding refugees.

Morgenthau gradually became more troubled about what he was seeing around him. Finally, his conscience– as well as the unexpected influence of an extraordinary woman– forced him to act, with consequences no one could foresee. The confrontation that followed led to the establishing of the War Refugee Board, credited with saving as many as 200,000 Jews in the final years of World War II.

After leaving government, Morgenthau (who had been raised in an anti-Zionist home) became head of the United Jewish Appeal and turned his attention to raising funds for the new State of Israel– convinced that had Israel existed during the preceding decade, millions of Jews would have had a destination and would not have been slaughtered in the face of the world’s apathy.

HONORABLE MR. MORGENTHAU brings this narrative to life in an innovative and immersive format. Unlike in most historical documentaries, there are no expert interviews or modern narration. Instead, the story is told entirely through primary source materials, supplemented with original cinematography and a powerful musical score. This format allows viewers to experience these events as they unfold, as people at the time did.

The questions that are raised by this story – about American bigotry, the fear of immigrants in a nation of immigrants, and an individual’s ability to create change despite overwhelming odds — have never been timelier than now. Both a troubling and an ultimately hopeful film, HONORABLE MR. MORGENTHAU aims to provide a window into the words and deeds of an America that sometimes seems not unlike our own, caught in the onrush of an unprecedented historical calamity.