N.H. Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories
KEENE, N.H. 9/15/04 - Five years in the making, the documentary film _Telling Their Stories: New Hampshire Holocaust Survivors Speak Out _will have its public premiere at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26, in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College. The screening is free and open to the public.
Telling Their Stories, produced by Robert Spiegelman of Manchester, N.H., and Fred Wolff of Lee, N.H., in association with the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State, is the first film to record the experiences of Holocaust survivors now living in New Hampshire. In the film, Anna Klein (Hungary) and Stephan Lewy (Germany), both of Manchester, the late Joseph Regensburger (Germany) of Lee, and Ruth Segal (Poland) of Hanover, reflect on their lives under the Nazi regime. David DeArville, a KSC film studies graduate who heads Trinity Films in Manchester, N.H., directed the film.
Telling Their Stories will serve as an historical record and an educational resource for schools in the state, says Spiegelman. The idea for preserving the stories and memories of New Hampshire’s Holocaust survivors was conceived by Spiegelman in 1998. Wolff began interviewing the survivors a year later, with DeArville, still a student, videotaping the interviews.
The film is intended to be an educational tool for middle and high school teachers in New Hampshire, says Paul Vincent, director of the Cohen Center, who with Tom White, the Cohen Center’s educational programs coordinator, served as historical consultant for the documentary. The Cohen Center, which will distribute the film, has produced a teacher’s guide to the Holocaust. White will organize outreach efforts to schools.
The following day, Monday, Sept. 27, the Cohen Center holds its Seventh Annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture. Holocaust survivor Nechama Tec, a two-time Pulitzer nominee and professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut at Stamford, will speak about “Resilience and Courage: Men, Women, and the Holocaust” at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room of the Student Center.
For more information, contact Robert Spiegelman at 603-432-9099 or Paul Vincent at 603-358-2722.
