Documentary about R.I. survivors featured at annual Kristallnacht commemoration

PROVIDENCE – The Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center presented the powerful documentary “Here We Live Again” as part of this year’s program commemorating Kristallnacht, the devastating Nazi pogroms on Nov. 9–10, 1938. The 1985 documentary, by Rhode Island’s Mike Fink and Peter O’Neill, follows Holocaust survivors who settled in R.I.

More than 75 people gathered at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center on Nov. 9 for the annual program. Many recognized some of the Rhode Islanders profiled in the film.

After the screening, Fink answered questions in a session moderated by Rhode Island PBS’ Michelle San Miguel.

Barbara Fields, chair of the Holocaust Education Center’s committee on combating antisemitism, opened the program with remarks about her father’s Holocaust experience. Her father escaped to Shanghai at the age of 19, she said. She called Kristallnacht, 85 years ago, the “defining moment” that motivated him to leave Germany.

The documentary was funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and the Rhode Island Foundation. The showing was part of the Baxt Lecture Series at the Holocaust Education Center.

The next Baxt Lecture will be April 14 and will feature Smith College Prof. Justin Cammy, who is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. Look for more information in January at bornsteinholocaustcenter.org.

FRAN OSTENDORF, editor, Jewish Rhode Island