Parallel Journeys

For teachers who are interested in reading Parallel Journeys by Eleanor H. Ayer with their students, Andrea Bault recently had her 7th graders read it and offered this feedback:

"The students were able to read it pretty independently - but it was too difficult for our Special Ed students.

"They liked the book - and have been giving me positive comments all the way through- Some reviews I read expressed concern about the "2 voices" in the book - but my kids seemed to do fine w/ it and knew how to tell the difference between the narrators. 


" I wrote out comprehension/ inferential/ analyzing questions to go along with it and that holds them accountable.  Another advantage is that not only was it personal stories, but they just read a whole, basic history book on the holocaust and did not realize it.  It held their attention very well.


"It's a good book to use and I will more than likely use it again in future years."


-Andrea Bault, Naches Valley Middle School

Speaker's Bureau Member Marie-Anne's New Website

Speaker's Bureau member Marie-Anne Harkness has been busy! Besides visiting a number of local schools to tell students about her grandmother Celine Morali and the French resistance during the Holocaust, she has also set up a website. The site includes information about her grandmother, and also has resources for those interested in learning more about rescuers of Jewish refugees in occupied France and the resistance movement. Check our her site, look around, and leave a comment in the forum!

Here is a link to her site: http://celinemorali.weebly.com/

And here is a link to her Speaker's Bureau profile: http://www.wsherc.org/center/survivorstories/Marie-AnneH.aspx

Here is a really nice write up about Holocaust survivor Fred Taucher speaking to students at Cavelero Mid High School in Lake Stevens:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120305/NEWS01/706029966#Holocaust-survivor-tells-Lake-Stevens-students-about-experiences

Crosscut.com has published this great interview with Ambassador David Scheffer about his new book ("All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals"), and his experiences as an architect of war crimes tribunals:

http://crosscut.com/2012/03/01/rights-ethics/21987/America-s-sadly-ambiguous-role-in-prosecuting-war-crimes/

One Way Holocaust Education Makes a Difference

Last week, speakers bureau member Marie-Anne Harkness spoke to students at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma. Several days later she received the following letter from one of the students:

Dear Marie Anne,

Thank you so much for taking the time to come to our school and teach us about your family's experiences. Hearing the story of your grandmother Celine was enthralling, and it provoked me to ask question of myself and of the rest of the world. You explained that Celine thought it was normal to save all those Jews and that she saw no choice but to do so, but so many others in Paris at the time thought that it was perfectly normal to turn in their very own Jewish neighbors to the Gestapo. I asked you about this, and you replied that some people just aren't very naturally empathetic. I asked you if empathy could be taught, and you said yes, and that this was the reason why you shared your story with classes like ours. Hearing that seemed to have completed for me the "puzzle" of the Holocaust, and why everyone should study History. In the days since your visit and our class discussions about the Holocaust rescuers, I have felt a stronger moral obligation to stand up for what is wrong that society has accepted nonetheless. So far, I have taken some small steps to improve the world around me. I have been standing up to someone who has been bullying my friend and calling out those who use derogatory language. I have always known these behaviors to be wrong, but the courage to do something about it has been in a sort of locked box inside of me. Your talk helped me open that box. Thank you so much for teaching my classmates and me such an important lesson.

Love,

Hayley

Boeing Honors Bob Herschkowitz!

On January 26, 2012, Robert Herschkowitz presented his story of survival during the Holocaust to 80 members of the Boeing Everett Service Engineering Twin Aisle Group as part of their Diversity Lunch and Learn Program. Bob spoke about his childhood in Belgium, escape to France, and experience crossing the Swiss Alps to freedom on foot with his mother, father and baby brother.

In honor of his exceptional performance, Boeing presented Bob with the Boeing Recognition Award.

Bob is past president of the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and active member of the Center’s Speakers Bureau. He has been active in our community as a speaker and Holocaust teacher. For more information on Bob, see his biography on the WSHERC website.

Teacher Seminars

40 teachers attended last week's teacher seminar on "Teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide" in Bellevue with special guest Dr. James Waller.

See photos from the seminar and the public lecture!

Educators - please join us at one of our next upcoming trainings: Feb. 17 in Bellingham or March 9 in Tacoma!

500 dvds!

More than 500 people have requested and received the Holocaust Center's new educational documentary, "With My Own Eyes"!

Pictured - the Holocaust Center's amazing interns preparing dvds to be sent out.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Not to be confused with Yom HaShoah (April 19, 2012), the United States’ Holocaust Remembrance Day, today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 1945, the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, and in 2005 this day was adopted as the United Nations’ day of Holocaust Remembrance—a day in which every nation state in the United Nations is obligated to honor the over 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. This year, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is dedicated to the children who died in the Holocaust. Today, the Secretary-General of the United Nations gave this statement:

“One and a half million Jewish children perished in the Holocaust – victims

of persecution by the Nazis and their supporters.

Tens of thousands of other children were also murdered.

They included people with disabilities… as well as Roma and Sinti.

All were victims of a hate-filled ideology that labelled them “inferior”.

This year’s International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is dedicated to the children – girls and boys who faced sheer terror and evil.

Many were orphaned by the war, or ripped away from their families.

Many died of starvation, disease or at the hands of their abusers.

We will never know what these children might have contributed to our world.

And among the survivors, many were too shattered to tell their stories.

Today, we seek to give voice to those accounts.

That is why the United Nations continues to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust.

It is why we strive to promote children’s rights and aspirations – every day and everywhere.

And it is why we will continue to be inspired by the shining example of great humanitarians such as Raoul Wallenberg, in this, the centennial year of his birth.

Today, as we remember all those lost during the Holocaust – young and old alike -- I call on all nations to protect the most vulnerable, regardless of race, colour, gender or religious beliefs.

Children are uniquely vulnerable to the worst of humankind.

We must show them the best this world has to offer.

Thank you.”

H.E. Mr. Ban Ki Moon

The Secretary-General of United Nations

For more information about International Holocaust Remembrance Day and how to attend a memorial in your area, click here.

An email we received from a teacher

An email we received other day from a teacher. We have posted it with her permission.

Dear Holocaust Center,

I would like to order your DVD With My Own Eyes. I have taught the Holocaust through both my World and U.S. History classes for twenty years, and I will be retiring from teaching in June, 2013. I would like to leave not only all of my Holocaust teaching materials gathered from so many workshops over the years, but also your DVD that focuses on many of the speakers my students have listened to spellbound in person. As these wonderful people pass on, we need to have their voices still heard by this new generation of high school students.

Please tell Klaus Stern that his voice has resonated with my students from the 1990’s at Shorewood High School to the students of Northgate Middle College High School. I keep in touch with many former students, and one of the most lasting experiences of my classes has been Klaus’ talk. Just yesterday I was visiting a former student from MCHS who now has a new baby. As we were talking, she said she’d love to have me meet her husband who is also a huge history buff, especially zeroing in on WWII. She then mentioned listening to Klaus Stern and related almost every part of his talk to those kids. She mentioned how it touched her so deeply and she will never forget his story and what happened in the Holocaust. MCHS works with at risk kids, drop outs, etc., and all of them were forever changed by listening to the hardships and stories of Mr. Stern.

I am finishing my teaching career as the only high school Social Studies teacher at Seattle Public Schools’ parent partner program. I teach regular high school classes as we are bound by all of the state and national standards just as any regular or alternative high school program. Over half of my students are Muslim, mostly girls in long flowing dresses, and this message needs to be heard by them too. This spring I am hoping to put in a speaker’s request one more time for Klaus Stern if he is still able to withstand the rigors of classroom visits. If not, the new DVD will be there to tell the story of Klaus and all the other survivors.

Karen Hansen
Seattle

"Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing"
Dr. James Waller
January 19, 2012. 6:30pm - 8:30pm.
Microsoft, Building 99, Redmond
Free and open to the public
RSVP - ilanak@wsherc.org

The past century, dubbed the "Age of Genocide," saw more than 60 million people murdered to meet the needs of the state. One unassailable fact is that political, social, or religious groups wanting to commit mass murder are never hindered by a lack of willing executioners. How is it that ordinary people commit such extraordinary evil?

Dr. James Waller is the Holocaust Studies Chair at Keene State College, an Affiliated Scholar with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, and author of
Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2007).

Also offered - Teacher Training: Friday, January 20, 2012. 8:30am - 3:30pm. At Bellevue College. Keynote: Dr. James Waller, "Genocide: Ever Again."

EVA TANNENBAUM CUMMINS: MY HERO

When asked by her teacher, Jo Cripps, to write an essay on her hero, Maya didn't choose a media figure, or a relative, or even a person out of history. She chose Eva Tannenbaum Cummins, a Holocaust survivor who spoke to her class earlier in the year. Eva is a member of the Holocaust Center's speakers bureau.

EVA TANNENBAUM CUMMINS: MY HERO
By Maya P., student at Pinehurst School, Seattle

"Can any of this happen here? That’s something that’s up to each and every one of us."
--Eva

Eva Tannenbaum Cummins was born in Berlin, Germany, in1922. She had a life like all the other children at that time. She had everything a little girl could dream of. She had a loving family and a good education.

And then everything changed. Events forced her to flee from Berlin, days before Hitler started World War II. Eva left her friends, her home, and everything she knew.

In January of 1933, Hitler took power in Germany. Eva's remarkable, intelligent father came home early one day and told his family his shocking news. He’d gotten fired from his newspaper job because he was Jewish.

When Eva was in fifth grade, the school principal brought together all the Jewish students in school. The principal explained to Eva and her friends that even though they were wonderful students, Nazi laws now required all Jews to leave public schools.

Eva and her mother escaped from Germany August of 1939, two weeks before Hitler attacked Poland. They arrived in Seattle with $20. They stayed with Eva’s mother's cousin. Eva went to Broadway High School, and her mother cleaned houses. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II.

Now, Eva is telling her story to children all around Seattle and beyond. She is dramatizing her life with a play she wrote. She is devoted to her work, and she is one of the few lucky people who actually love their job. Eva is fully committed to her work with us students, and she is very brave.

Eva has been brave all her life, even during deep hardship. Today, at age 89, Eva is going strong.

With so much negativity in the world, I think it’s time that some of the nice people here got some attention instead. Eva definitely grabbed our attention with her play. But most of all, she was kind. To me and all the others. She loves us, and we learn from her and love her back. That is why she is my hero.

Photo: Eva with students at Highline Community College in 2009.

Making the world a better place

Holocaust Survivors Argue Against Donation

Holocaust survivors in Florida have successfully lobbied against the acceptance of a donation from the American subsidiary of the French National Railroad (SNCF). The donation of $80,000 was to be used to teach Florida students about the role of France in the Holocaust. Regional survivors urged the state's educational commissioner to reject the donation on the grounds that the railroad has not taken full responsibility for it's role in the deaths of 76,000 French Jews. For its part, the SNCF has issued an apology, however it also maintains the the trains had been commandeered by the Nazis.

Link:

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/15/3090768/holocaust-survivors-force-nazi-collaborator-french-railroad-to-back-down

Tensions Rise Between France and Turkey Over Genocide Issue

Tensions between Turkey and France are growing as the French parliament prepares to vote on a resolution that would penalize the denial of the Armenian genocide. If passed, the resolution would prompt France to block Turkey's membership bid to the European Union unless Turkey formally recognizes its role in the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenians. Turkey has denied any role in the deaths.

Link:

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-265644-turkish-reaction-piles-up-against-sarkozy-ahead-of-genocide-denial-vote.html

Here is a link to some information on the Armenian genocide:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/turkey/armenian_genocide/index.html