"I'm opposed to this film. The history of the Barneveld group is an exception."

Opening with these words THE SAVED tells the story of 700 Dutch Jews who, seemingly on a whim of fate, managed to escape deportation to concentration camps during World War II. While their friends and neighbors were dragged from their homes, these survivors found shelter at a chateau in Barneveld where they tried to preserve the life they had known. THE SAVED captures their story, in their own words, for the first time.

The so-called 'Barneveld Group' was created when K. L. Frederiks, then the Permanent Secretary of the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs, compiled a list of 'deserving Dutch Jews.' Artists, doctors and industrialists found a much-coveted place on 'Frederik's list,' but hundreds were refused. THE SAVED shows us dozens of files of desperate letters pleading for a place on the list.

THE SAVED pieces together the stories of 9 survivors. Some remember the in-house concerts and the love affairs that developed, others the isolation and anxieties about the future. At Westerbork and Theresienstadt, where they were eventually sent, they saw trains headed for the camps, sometimes carrying friends or family. Finally, the film records the survivors' struggle to come to terms with their exceptional fate, with the guilt, anger and depression that continue to haunt them.