"Studying the Holocaust changed the way I make decisions." - Student

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

National Archives and Footnote.com Announce New Digital Holocaust Collection

Collection includes Holocaust-related photos and records available online for first time

Washington DC and Lindon, UT –September 29, 2009

The National Archives and Records Administration and Footnote.com today announced the release of the internet’s largest Interactive Holocaust Collection. For the first time ever, over one million Holocaust-related records – including millions of names and 26,000 photos from the National Archives– will be available online. The collection can be viewed at: http://www.footnote.com/holocaust/ .

“We cannot afford to forget this period in our history,” said Dr. Michael Kurtz, Assistant Archivist of the United States and author of America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe's Cultural Treasures. “Working with Footnote, these records will become more widely accessible, and will help people now and in the future learn more about the events and impact of the Holocaust.”

Included among the National Archives records available online at Footnote.com are:
  • Concentration camp registers and documents from Dachau, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, and Flossenburg

  • The “Ardelia Hall Collection” of records relating to the Nazi looting of Jewish possessions, including looted art

  • Captured German records including deportation and death lists from concentration camps
    Nuremberg War Crimes Trial proceedings
Access to the collection will be available for free on Footnote.com through the month of October.
Read full article

Friday, September 25, 2009

Movie review: Into the Arms of Strangers


Although made in 2000, I just recently watched the film Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. The Kindertransport refers to the rescue operation of 10,000 Jewish children in 1938-1939. These children that were facing Hitler's persecution were allowed to leave German-occupied territories and travel by train to Great Britain. There, they were placed in foster homes or hostels.

Into the Arms of Strangers interviews a few of these child survivors. They recount their memories of being separated from their parents and welcomed into a foreign country. Poignant moments are when the survivors recall the joy of knowing that non-Jewish peers would play with them, feeling love from their foster parents, or being reunited with their families. Of course, many of the parents who could not leave Germany perished in concentration camps and the film shows the sadness of the children who, only after years of separation, realized that they would never see their parents again.

Into the Arms of Strangers won a 2000 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and it is easy to understand why. The archival footage alone makes the film worth seeing. A free study guide to the film can be found at http://www.intothearmsofstrangers.com/studyguide. This DVD is available in the Holocaust Center's library.

-Lauren Bianchi, Office Manager & Speakers Bureau Coordinator

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Teacher response to Holocaust Center's editorial in the Seattle Times

We received an overwhelming amount of support for our September 17th editorial in the Seattle Times. One of the teachers who uses our resources in her classroom wrote:

This was a very well written editorial. I shared this with my classes as it ties in well with every unit we are doing...We had Carl Wilkins here Monday, we are watching a Rosa Parks video from the teaching tolerance program and we are reading novels which have some issues of segregation and hate-crimes. The students are disappointed to hear these things happening around us but they are becoming proactive by voicing their concerns in our school as well when they see actions of bullying or hatred. Thank you for sending me the article to share and also for sending the message that Hatred is not supported or tolerated. Have a wonderful day.

-Teacher, Reardan-Edwall Junior High

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Swastikas painted on Seattle synagogues highlight need for education, tolerance

Combating Hate with Knowledge
The Seattle Times
September 17, 2009


The swastikas painted on two synagogues in Seattle's Seward Park neighborhood are a stark reminder that hate and prejudice live. Guest columnists Laurie Cohen and Delila Simon say the vandalism is a reminder that people must denounce hatred when they see it.

By Laurie Warshal Cohen and Delila Simon
Special to The Seattle Times


WITH a splash of paint, in the dark of night, some youngsters in Seattle have reminded us that hate crimes, ignorance and intolerance are ever-present, even in our own backyard. Swastikas painted on two synagogues recently in Seward Park are a stark reminder that each of us has the responsibility to shine a light on prejudice and hate whenever and wherever we encounter it.

The swastika graffiti drawn on the synagogues in one of our own Seattle neighborhoods challenges us as a community and as individuals to confront the roots of hate crimes such as this one. It is not enough to tolerate our differences; we must learn to respect our diversity. We must learn to be the ones who stand up to hate and to violence.

Sad to say, the experience of such intolerance can be found every day in almost every area of our lives. Students come up against bullying in our schools. The Muslim community has suffered a narrow-minded anger and prejudice since the tragedy of 9/11. In recent news reports, we see instances of intolerance with anger and hateful speech drowning out thoughtful and reasoned disagreement or discussion.

Whether in the blatant form of swastikas or the more subtle offensive comment, the origin is the same: intolerance. And if we do not stand up when we see it, and teach our children how unacceptable it is, we all remain in the dark.

Since the Holocaust, the swastika has become a symbol of what could happen if hatred is fostered and left unchecked. No matter who painted the swastikas — no matter what motive — they picked this symbol and they selected synagogues to display it. Symbols are powerful in our culture. This one has tragic historical meaning for humanity, but especially for Holocaust survivors who witnessed swastikas scribbled on the shops owned by their parents in Germany on Kristallacht — November 9-10, 1938.

After the recent shooting of Stephen Tyrone Johns at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., museum director Sara J. Bloomfield made the following statement: "The Holocaust did not begin with mass murder. It began with hate. The Holocaust reminds us of the dangers of indifference and unchecked hate — and that each of us has a responsibility to stand up to it."

We all know the tragic consequences of bigotry, prejudice and hatred. The Washington State Holocaust Education Center's mission of teaching and learning for humanity puts it on the front lines of educating our young people. With a multipronged approach, we help students study the Holocaust in the context of human rights and genocide.

As an outcome of our educational efforts we have witnessed students saying they will no longer accept bullying in their classes. They know the difference one person can make. A Lynnwood High School student stated, "After studying the Holocaust and hearing a Holocaust survivor speak, I feel it is my job to help others. I can't just let things happen anymore."

Teaching about the Holocaust is a springboard for connecting lessons of the past to current issues of intolerance in our classrooms. Learning about prejudice and the roots of genocide are other important lessons. Our children will inherit a more diverse world. They are depending on us to create pathways toward a more inclusive society. At the Holocaust Center, we know this can be done through education.

We know that the slogan "Never Again" has fallen short of reality as we are living in an age of modern genocide. We should have learned by now that we cannot wait as bystanders or victims, we must act. We must teach our children to stand up for what is right, for the betterment of our community, our region and our world. We must denounce hatred when we see it and embrace the diversity of our fellow human beings with whom we share this planet.

Laurie Warshal Cohen, left, and Delila Simon are co-executive directors, Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation strives to stop genocide

The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation
AIPR's mission: The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation seeks to prevent genocide through the training and education of mid-level policy makers from around the world.

Dr. James Waller, an affiliated scholar with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, and author of Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing, will be speaking in Seattle on October 21 and as the keynote speaker at the Holocaust Center's annual fundraiser luncheon on October 22.
The Daily Tell
Article By Alex Zucker, Guest Writer
September 15, 2009

It has been more than sixty years since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and declared genocide a crime. But tragically, genocide continues around the world. Some believe there will never be any way to stop it. But the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, a nonprofit group committed to genocide awareness and human rights networking, believes this mass murder can be prevented.

Founded with the support of the International Auschwitz Council and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the AIPR began its mission in May 2008 with a one-week seminar in Auschwitz, for policy makers from twelve countries and every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Eighteen scholars shared their knowledge on the history of genocide and the elements of genocide prevention. The aim was to give government officials the tools to identify conditions when genocide is likely and implement policies to avoid it, as well as to build an international network of professionals dedicated to stopping genocide. Read more...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

UN agency names Cambodian genocide museum a key historical archive

UN agency names Cambodian genocide museum a key historical archive

The Canadian Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, formerly a prison and torture centre operated by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, has been declared by the U.N. to be an archive of worldwide significance for its historical documents.


The Cambodian government and U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - UNESCO - opened a meeting Monday to establish a national committee to oversee the museum's operation as a newly designated "Memory of the World" site. A UNESCO meeting at the end of July in Bridgetown, Barbados, named the museum as one of 35 archives worldwide added to a list of almost 200 that are exceptional historical repositories.


The museum, formerly a high school in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, was turned into S-21 prison after the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. Of the estimated 16,000 men, women and children who passed through its gates, only a handful survived. An estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of the communist Khmer Rouge's radical policies from 1975 to 1979.


The museum's archive includes 4,186 confessions - often falsely given by prisoners under torture - 6,226 biographies of prisoners, 6,147 photographic prints and negatives of prisoners and other items. Read more...

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

President Obama's Speech to Students

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama - Back to School Event
Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning....keep reading...