The Last Manilaners - Season 1 (2020)

When Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler staged a dangerous game, six million Jews suffered the consequences- racial discrimination, torture, and even death. Margot Pins-Kestenbaum and Lotte Cassel-Hershfield recount how their blissful lives turned into torment as the Nuremberg Laws progress in Germany in 1935, leaving the Jewish people with only two choices: to suffer and wait, or to escape. As the living survivors of Hitler's reign of terror, Margot and Lotte recall how the Philippines, under the leadership of then President Manuel L. Quezon, defied the odds and welcomed...

In an attempt to annihilate the Jews, the German government cultivated an act of extreme violence-burning down synagogues, and attacking Jewish schools, cemeteries, and stores- called Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. Determined to get away from Hitler's clutches, Margot Pins-Kestenbaum and Max Weissler, together with their families, braved the seas in hopes of rebuilding their lives in the Philippines. Looking back on their journey, Margot and Max share their struggles fleeing to Manila and the joy they felt finding home in a foreign land- until the ...

During the Japanese occupation, Jewish refugees joined the fight and rallied alongside Filipinos and Americans. Unbeknowst to them, their families in Europe were facing a toxic battle with the mass-killing of Jews called Holocaust. Margot Pins-Kestenbaum, Lotte Cassel-Hershfield, and Max Weissler tell how their new home turned into a battleground when the Japanese troops infiltrated the shores of Manila, while their loved ones suffered terribly back in Germany.