Chika, The Dog in the Ghetto

Film Synopsis

Chika the dog and the five-year old Mikasch are the heroes of this story which is set in a Jewish ghetto in an unnamed Polish city. The little dog helps Mikasch to develop as a child despite the persecution of the Jews and the threats of the 2nd World War. During World War II it was forbidden for Jews to keep their pets. One day the official orders decreed that Jews have to deliver all dogs. Mikasch refuses to obey this command. His parents help him to find a solution to save Chika. Mikasch’s father hides the dog outside the ghetto at a non-jewish friends house.

Then one day a soldier knocks on the door of the families apartment and delivers a command. The family has to gather with all other Jewish families to be deported. Father, mother and child do not obey, instead they hide in the cellar. Mikasch realizes how important it was to take Chika outside the ghetto. In the small hiding place Chika would have started to bark and that would have revealed the hideout of his family. With the belief to see Chika again one day, Mikasch overcomes the difficult times in the hideout without serious damage. At the (happy)-end Mikasch and Chika actually find each other once again. There is peace.