Man Accused of Crimes at a Nazi Camp Is Deported

New York Times - By NICHOLAS KULISH

BERLIN — John Demjanjuk of Seven Hills, Ohio, born Ivan Demjanjuk in Ukraine in 1920, was deported for the second time by the United States on Monday, accused of crimes committed as a Nazi death-camp guard.

The first time was 23 years ago, and he was bound for worldwide notoriety, accused of being the unfathomably cruel “Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka,” one of the Holocaust’s most infamous sadists. He was convicted and sentenced to death in Israel, before new evidence won him a reprieve and eventually a trip back to the United States and the return of his stripped citizenship.

But the wheels of justice began to grind again, and the whole process has repeated itself step by step. Monday night, a frailer Mr. Demjanjuk, now 89 and once again stateless, boarded a special medically equipped airplane, this time bound for Germany, federal officials said, where he is accused of being an accessory in the murder of 29,000 Jews while working as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in eastern Poland.

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Facebook Tolerates Holocaust Denial Groups

Existing Facebook groups that deny the Holocaust will remain on the social networking site because Facebook only intervenes in cases where groups threaten violence toward others, the site said Tuesday...

Read article - from PC Magazine

Olympic High School Class Visits the Holocaust Center

Today the 10th graders from Olympic High School in Bremerton came to the Holocaust Center. This class has borrowed our Holocaust teaching trunk and the students entered our 2009 Writing and Art Contest. They were well prepared to come to the Center and explore our resources.

The students examined our artifact collection, looked at our new exhibit--"Stories Among Us: Washington State Connections to the Holocaust"--and browsed the materials in our extensive Holocaust and genocide library.

The class also listened to Speakers Bureau member Peter D. share his story of survival during the Holocaust. Peter and his family fled Germany and traveled to Shanghai, where they lived in terrible conditions with thousands of other Jewish refugees. Listening to Peter's story and reflections on the power of hate, bullying, and ignorance, the 10th graders from Olympic High School became witnesses to history.

Fifteen Years After The Genocide, Rwandans Struggle To Heal National Wounds

PBS - Online NewsHour with Jeffrey Brown.

Author Philip Gourevitch discusses his piece in the New Yorker reflecting on the state of Rwanda 15 years after genocide ravaged the country.

...Shortly after the killing ended, journalist Philip Gourevitch began traveling to Rwanda to interview survivors and perpetrators. His award-winning book on the subject, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families," was published in 1998.
He returned recently and, in an article in the New Yorker magazine, wrote about the remarkable changes he found. Philip Gourevitch, whose latest book is "The Ballad of Abu Ghraib," joins me now...

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Obama Marks Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

NPR - All Things Considered, April 24, 2009

President Obama marked the 94th remembrance day for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Turks during World War I. As a candidate, Obama called the killings genocide. On a trip to Turkey as president last month, he shied away from that description.

Click here to listen (2min 9 sec)

President Obama's Days of Remembrance Address

Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day
National Ceremony in Capitol Rotunda, April 23


View President Obama's Days of Remembrance Address
View the transcript of the President's remarks

Coming soon - transcript of the powerful speech given by Elie Wiesel.

Forest Ridge Students Create Holocaust Museum

Each year Ann Gilbert's 8th grade students spend weeks studying the Holocaust and creating a museum for their fellow students, parents, and others to visit. For the past several years I have been invited to tour the museums. I am always so impressed with the students' creativity, knowledge, and passion for the subject. For the first time, this year's museum is set up throughout the campus - both outside and inside. The displays included timelines, video presentations, drawings, paintings, cutouts of life-sized figures, and a pile of shoes - all set in carefully crafted spaces.

Special thanks to Ann Gilbert and my two knowledgable and insightful docents yesterday.

Want to know more about this project? Ask Master Teacher Ann Gilbert - anngi@forestridge.org.

-Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education

Welcome!

Welcome to the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center's new blog!

The Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established in 1989. The Holocaust Center supports teachers in the public and private schools of Washington (and throughout the Pacific Northwest!) who want to introduce Holocaust studies into their curricula.

The Center provides educational materials, including resources that preserve local connections to the Holocaust for grades 5-12 through university levels.

It is through the study of the Holocaust that young people and adults learn about human behavior, social responsibility, moral courage, the importance of speaking out against intolerance, and the difference just one person can make.