New Bedford area Holocaust education events

The Holocaust Education and Memorial Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford is sponsoring a variety of programs to further the understanding of the Holocaust. With this year’s theme: The Rise of Anti-Semitism in the World, the committee’s goal is to teach students and the community about anti-Semitism in the world today and to reflect on the consequences of anti-Semitism leading up to the Holocaust in the 1930s.

On Oct. 29, local students will see “Through the Eyes of a Friend: the World of Anne Frank.” The Zeiterion Theater is a partner in presenting this play at Dartmouth High School at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

On Oct. 31, the committee, in conjunction with Bristol Community College Holocaust Center and the Luso-American Center, is offering a conference, “Light in a Time of Darkness,” in the Jackson Arts Center on the BCC Fall River campus. The conference, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will discuss the role of Aristide de Sousa Mendes, the former Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, who signed visas to assist Jews in escaping from France to Portugal. Mendes will also be discussed at a breakfast held at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in New Bedford on Nov. 2 at 10 a.m.

The following two programs coincide with the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, which occurred in Germany and Austria on Nov. 10, 1938, and demonstrated anti-Semitism at its worst. Synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed by Germans seeking revenge for the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris. 

On Nov. 9, Gaylen Ross, the director of the film “Killing Kastzner: The Jew who Dealt with the Nazis,” will speak about the making of this controversial film at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue at 2 p.m. The film explores how one man could be viewed as both rescuer and betrayer. By viewing this film, the community will also learn about anti-Semitism and the situation in Hungary in 1944.

On Nov. 16, at 3 p.m., also at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Dr. Ilana Offenberger, a professor at UMass Dartmouth, will speak on “Following Kristallnacht in Vienna: the November Pogrom of 1938 and its Impact on Emigration.” Offenberger will also discuss the rise of anti-Semitism today in Vienna and Germany.

Events at Tifereth Israel Synagogue and BCC are free and open to the public.

CYNTHIA YOKEN is co-chair of The Holocaust Education and Memorial Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford.