Hostages Families Forum decries ‘Schindler’s lists’ amid reports of emerging partial deal

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum decries reports that an emerging deal to release hostages would ensure the release of only some of the captives in multiple stages.

“At this critical time, it is forbidden to conform to the various Schindler’s lists being dictated, as if it was impossible to bring them all back a long time ago,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum says in a statement, referring to Oskar Schindler’s list of Jewish employees who were saved from being transported to Nazi extermination camps during the Holocaust.

Hostage families have previously compared the phased, selective releases of hostages to the Nazi “selection” that doomed some at concentration camps to death, while others were chosen for forced labor.

“All of the abductees could have been returned for rehabilitation and burial many months ago if only the government had chosen to do so and not for considerations of political survival.”

The forum says the method of releasing hostages via lists and stages creates “unbearable uncertainty” for the families.