When humanity is stronger than fear

🎬 Created as part of the project by the Public Resources and Initiatives Charity Foundation with the support of RoAid.

The film is part of our mission — to preserve historical memory, to resist oblivion, and to support dialogue about moral values during the darkest times. We believe that Popovici’s example inspires dignity and responsibility toward others — regardless of the era.

The events of the documentary “Only Lovers Will Survive. Traian Popovici and Others” take place in the city of Chernivtsi during World War II. In 1941, the mayor of Chernivtsi — local lawyer Traian Popovici — was expected to implement Antonescu's regime policy of deporting Bukovinian Jews to Transnistrian camps. Instead, he fiercely resisted these orders. Ultimately, he achieved an incredible success: he managed to save more than 20,000 Jews from Chernivtsi, most of whom survived the war in the city.

After the war, Popovici moved to Bucharest and wrote a text titled “Confession,” in which he recounts the circumstances of these events. He called the autumn days of 1941 the greatest achievement of his life. Shortly after writing the text (in 1946), Traian Popovici suddenly passed away. In 1969, Yad Vashem recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations. Nonetheless, his name — legendary among former Chernivtsi emigrants — remains unknown in his homeland, in Bukovina.

The text of Popovici’s “Confession” became the basis for part of the film. The reflective documentary also touches on the biographies of other Chernivtsi rescuers who helped save two prominent German-speaking European poets who survived the war in Chernivtsi: Paul Celan and Rose Ausländer. The film uses archival documents, World War II-era newspaper publications, Romanian and Soviet wartime chronicles.

• Project Lead: Serhiy Hakman
• Script: Serhiy Vorontsov
• Directors: Vyacheslav Khabailo, Serhiy Vorontsov
• Actors: Ivan Danilin, Oleksii Hryhorchuk
• Cinematographers: Vitalii Yaskevych, Volodymyr Khaliavka, Mykola Havka
• Editing: Andrii Dubinetskyi, Volodymyr Khaliavka
• Music Editor: Vyacheslav Khabailo
• Church Prayer: Nataliia Protsiuk
• Sound: “Alexsound”, Oleksandr Rohozhevskyi
• Literary Editor: Olesia Andriichuk
• Translation: Liudvyha Tsurkan, Vasyl Hrokholskyi, Olha Sharahova, Tudor Andriesh, Serhiy Hakman