Baxt Lecture Series Film "Persona Non Grata"

For the Spring Baxt Lecture Series, the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center and the Providence Village of Rhode Island jointly present PERSONA NON GRATA.

This film portrays the true story of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who acted against orders to save thousands of Jewish lives from Nazi extermination. Tracking events from 1934 to 1955, the film follows Chiune Sugihara from his early days in Manchuria to his position as Japan's consul in Lithuania during WW II. Caught between the rigid policies of Japan and bound by a treaty with Nazi Germany, he experienced a moral awakening that led him to put his career and family at great risk by illegally issuing transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees to help them escape to Japan.

PERSONA NON GRATA illuminates who Sugihara was and what motivated him to perform these extraordinary deeds that led to his recognition in 1984 by Israel, which bestowed upon him the title of RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS, and posthumously by Japan in 2000.

We’re excited that a representative from the Japanese Consulate in Boston will be joining us for a discussion and coffee hour following the film.