New Documentary Chronicles Forgotten Tragedy of 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children—A Haunting Mirror to Modern Jewish Suffering

By: Fern Sidman

A newly released documentary is drawing international attention for its powerful illumination of a nearly forgotten episode in Jewish history—one that echoes with chilling resonance in today’s climate of rising antisemitism and ongoing hostage crises. Titled The 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children, the 30-minute film was released free to the public on YouTube by the HispanoJewish Foundation of Madrid and the Jewish Community of Porto. As reported on Sunday by The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), the documentary is a poignant exploration of historical trauma, released as a tribute to the families of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 massacre.

According to the information provided in the JNS report, the film revisits the year 1493, when King João II of Portugal ordered the seizure of 2,000 Jewish children—ages eight and under—as a punitive measure against their families, who were unable to pay the exorbitant ransom demanded by the Portuguese crown. These families were Spanish Jews who had fled the Alhambra Decree of 1492, which expelled Jews from Spain. Having sought refuge in neighboring Portugal, they soon found themselves ensnared in a new cycle of persecution.

The children were forcibly removed from their parents and deported to the island of São Tomé, a remote and uninhabited volcanic landmass off the west coast of Africa, more than 7,000 kilometers from the Iberian Peninsula. The island, then newly claimed by Portugal, became a site of exile, suffering, and erasure, as documented in the JNS report.

“The agony of having our children stolen is something Jews have felt many times in history,” said David Hatchwell Altaras, president of the HispanoJewish Foundation. In remarks shared with JNS, he continued: “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 party on Oct. 7.”

Gabriel Senderowicz, president of the Jewish Community of Porto, emphasized the film’s contemporary relevance. “When we hear European leaders rewarding terrorism and encouraging the killing of Jews and Israelis everywhere, it becomes imperative to remember what European Jewish life has been like for centuries,” he told JNS. “This film aims to recall a historical episode, similar to many others, that is not even mentioned in school curricula in any European country.”

The 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children draws from historical sources such as the writings of Isaac Abravanel, Samuel Usque, and Shlomo Ibn Verga, Jewish scholars and chroniclers who captured the existential plight of Sephardic Jewry during the Inquisition-era upheavals. The film’s meticulous research is underscored by vivid depictions of the treacherous conditions on São Tomé, as described by 16th-century Jewish physician Amato Lusitano. He recounted an island plagued by toxic volcanic gases, hostile wildlife, and giant crocodiles, which often reached 10 meters in length. The Jewish world came to know São Tomé as I Ha Timsahim—“The Island of the Lizards.”

The narrative of the documentary is not solely one of despair. In spite of the brutal forced exile, some of the children survived, and their descendants eventually formed resilient communities. The JNS report indicated that over time, they contributed to the development of local industries such as sugar, wine, cheese, and meat production, offering a profound testament to the endurance and adaptive strength of the Jewish people.

The film, while rooted in the events of the 15th century, is unflinching in its effort to draw parallels to the present. Its release comes amidst heightened global concern over antisemitism and the continuing ordeal of Israeli hostages held by Hamas following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel. JNS has reported extensively on the humanitarian crisis stemming from that attack, which targeted civilians living in kibbutzim in  the southwest Negev region along with those attending the Nova music festival and left over 1,200 Israelis dead and more than 250 taken into Hamas captivity in Gaza.

In this context, The 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children becomes more than a historical documentary. It is a moral reckoning, a demand for remembrance, and a call to confront the uncomfortable cycles of antisemitism that have haunted Jewish history from medieval Europe to modern-day Israel. As the JNS report noted, the film bridges a temporal divide, connecting the forgotten pain of the past with the unresolved traumas of the present.

The documentary’s availability on YouTube, free of charge, reflects the producers’ desire to educate as many people as possible. “This isn’t just a Jewish story,” Senderowicz told JNS. “It is a European story. It is a human story. And it’s one the world needs to hear, now more than ever.”

By shedding light on this long-suppressed chapter, the HispanoJewish Foundation and the Jewish Community of Porto are contributing not only to historical justice, but also to the broader fight against erasure, denial, and revisionism—forces that, as JNS consistently reported, remain dangerously potent in today’s political landscape.

The 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children stands as both an elegy and an act of resistance—a cinematic memorial that ensures these lost voices are not forgotten, and that the past remains a forceful lens through which we confront the injustices of the present.