Many people are unaware that the Philippines provided safe haven to Jewish, Russian, and Indochinese refugees.
In the late 1930s, 1,200 German and Austrian Jews fled the Holocaust of Europe and found refuge in Manila. The plan for the rescue reportedly came about during regular poker games which included Philippine President Manuel Quezon, an American official Paul McNutt, Col. Dwight Eisenhower, and the Jewish-American Frieder brothers. The Philippines offered visas to Jews who most likely would have died in Nazi Germany. Shortly after the Jewish refugees settled in the Philippines, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and the refugees found themselves in another war. However, the Japanese accepted the Jews as Germans (their allies) and did not persecute them.
For the aid the Philippines extended to the 1,200 Jews, Israel created an "Open Doors" monument in Rishon Lezion Memorial Park just off Tel Aviv.
