Everyday Objects Used Nationwide

Today a request came in from Maplewood, Minnesota for a set of our Everday Objects poster series. Everyday Objects ($20/set) consists of a set of twelve 8.5 x 11" double-sided posters. Each poster features an artifact and the story of either the object or the person who obtained the object. The set is ideal for use in classrooms as an activity or display. It is an invaluable resource as students learn about the Holocaust using primary sources.

This poster set is used not only in classrooms, but in community centers, churches, synagogues, and libraries. It is always exciting to know that our resources and the Everyday Objects posters are being used and sought-after in all regions of the United States--including in Alaska, Georgia, New Jersey, and now Minnesota!

Students at St. Anne School Hear A Survivor's Story

"Your name is part of who you are," explained Steve A. "Imagine if a law was passed forcing you to change your middle name. That's what happened to me. You'll see my middle name on my passport is 'Israel.' All males had to change their middle names to Israel. All females had to change their middle names to Sarah."

Steve A., a Holocaust survivor and member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau, grew up in Berlin, and was one of the 10,000 children who became part of the kindertransport.

Today he shared his experiences with Teacher Pam Sturgeon's 8th grade students at St. Anne school on Queen Anne in Seattle. His message was one of respect. He encouraged kids to accept each other's differences, and to stand up and speak out when they see unjustice in their own lives and in the world around them.

7000 Students Use Holocaust Teaching Trunks & Classroom Sets of Books

[The students] learned life lessons about bullying, hope, love, survival, war, good vs evil and caring.
- Teacher, Ridgeline Middle School, Yelm

7000 students used the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center's Holocaust Teaching Trunks and classroom sets of books in the 2008-2009 school year!

This was the first year the classroom sets of books have been available - they were met with enthusiasm. A classroom set of books includes 30 copies of a title, a related dvd, a teacher guide, and related activities for the classroom. Titles available are All But My Life, Diary of Anne Frank, Hana's Suitcase, Night, and Number the Stars.

16 Holocaust teaching trunks criss-cross the state of Washington throughout the year. 81 schools used the trunks and classroom sets this year!

Reservations for the 2009-10 school year now being accepted for trunks and classroom sets! Reserve your materials now!

Thank you for sending the Holocaust teaching trunk. Thank you for letting us never forget. A million thank yous!

- Student, Meridian Middle School, Kent

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.

Read article

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.