Kamchatka

This Civil War anthology adapts three Ambrose Bierce stories "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "Chickamauga" and "The Mockingbird".

This is a true story about 40 Jewish children on their way to Palestine who were blocked by the German and Italian occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941. Before finding a haven at Villa Emma in Nonantola in northern Italy, where they arrived on June 17, 1942, the children spent several adventurous months in Slovenia, caught up in the ongoing fight between the partisans and the Italian army. In April 1943, another 33 children, some from the Balkans, others from France, joined the original group. All were orphans who had lost their parents in concentration camps and had subsequently been smuggled out of Germany by Recha Freier, a well-known Zionist. The group ranged in age from six to 21 and settled in at Villa Emma with their chaperones and teachers, Josef Indig, Marco Schoky and pianist Boris Jochverdson. The children lived in modest, but quite acceptable conditions. They attended class and courses in agriculture and craftsmanship prepared them for their impending departure for Palestine and a future on a Kibbutz. The orphans were under police supervision and forbidden to go out alone, but even so Nonantola took their plight to heart and firm friendships were established between the townspeople and the young Jews. After Italy surrendered to the Allies on September 8, 1943, German troops arrived in Nonantola and the situation changed dramatically. In less than 48 hours, Villa Emma was abandoned and the fugitive boys and girls found refuge in the seminary of the Abbey, and in the homes of local farmers, craftsman and shopkeepers. The local priest, Father Arrigo Beccari, showed great courage in these circumstances. The threat of raids by the German police provoked much anxiety and between September 28 and October 16, 1943 all the young refugees were successfully smuggled into Switzerland, fording the fast-flowing Tresa River under cover of darkness. In Switzerland, Zionist organizations hosted them in an institute in Bex in the Rodano Valley and it was from there that most of the group reached Palestine in May 1945 after an odyssey that had lasted five years. One of the boys who contracted TB and had to be admitted to a sanatorium was unable to escape and his name appears on a list of deportees to Auschwitz. Subsequently, Arrigo Beccari and Giuseppe Moreali, the local doctor in Nonantola, were cited in the Yad Vashem for their courage and they have their own tree in the Avenue of Just Men.

In order to avoid reprisals from the Wehrmacht for the murder of a soldier, intellectuals from a Romanian village try to convince Ipu, the village idiot, to take the blame for the murder and save everybody.

During WW2, in a Nazi-occupied country, a local partisan blows-up a German military train, prompting the Germans to take civilian hostages to be shot if the culprit doesn't surrender before a deadline.

Based on a true story. After Poland is overrun by Axis forces in 1939, an officer and his remaining men decide to continue fighting the invaders alone, thereby becoming the first guerrillas of World War II.

In search of her son-pilot, whose humanitarian plane was shot down over the occupied territories of Ukraine, the mother finds herself in a completely alien and aggressive world, where everything is permeated with hatred and suffering. In this hell, she is not only looking for a son, but, having great love and a merciful character in her heart, she changes everyone she meets on her way. And most importantly, she changes herself, gaining truly sacred power. Her despair and pain are reborn in the eternal motherly spirit of the earth, which brings her sons home alive or dead.