Students create quilts to honor Holocaust survivor Susie S.

Students from Lisa Kreiger's class at Kalles Junior High School in Puyallup, designed two Holocaust quilts, which they recently donated to the Holocaust Center. These quilts were inspired by the class's Holocaust unit and were created to honor Susie S., the Holocaust survivor who spoke to their class in April.

Says Kreiger of the unit, "We examined the unit from the perspective of the theme of justice and injustice and the role of the bystander in helping, as well as the role of discrimination and propaganda in genocide."

Students were moved by what they learned in the unit and from Susie, a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.

Both quilts are on display at the Holocaust Center. Thank you for all of your hard work Kalles Junior High!

Can't get to DC but want to attend one of the USHMM's teacher seminars?

On August 24, 2010, the Holocaust Center is partnering with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Seattle University to bring to Seattle

Perspectives on the Holocaust: A Seminar for Educators.

Register Now! (Space is limited.)

This one-day, information packed seminar will provide educators with a solid foundation for teaching about the Holocaust in their classrooms.

We are proud to welcome as our keynote speaker Carl Wilkens, former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda, and one of only a handful of Americans who chose to stay in the country after the genocide began. Wilkens is currently the director and founder of World Outside My Shoes.

Sessions are lead by the Holocaust Center's master teachers and USHMM teacher fellows - teachers who have had extensive training and experience in the subject of the Holocaust and genocide.

If you've been teaching the Holocaust for years, or if you have never taught the subject before - all teachers will find the day challenging, thought-provoking, and insightful. No one will leave without having gained new resources and new ideas.

Sessions include:

Nazi Ideology and the Holocaust: An Historical Overview
Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust
Breakout sessions (Social Studies, Language Arts, and others)

Nazi Propaganda

Local Resources
Antisemitism and the Holocaust
Understanding Contemporary Genocide: The Case of Rwanda (Carl Wilkens)

Stories from a Survivor (Evening program - open to the public)

This incredible professional development opportunity is FREE. Lunch, snacks, and all materials are provided. Clock hours available. Regsitration is now open and space is limited.

Register Now!

Perspectives on the Holocaust: A Seminar for Educators
August 24, 2010
At Seattle University, Seattle
Sponsored by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Seattle University.

Questions or want more information? Please email Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education, Holocaust Center at ilanak@wsherc.org.

Outstanding educator and WSHERC board member Pat G. bringing Gerda Weissman Klein to Seattle!

Holocaust speaker coming to Kent: Gerda Weissman Klein the subject of Oscar-winning filmBy Laura Pierce

Kent Reporter Editor

May 20 2010, 7:00 PM

For Pat Gallagher, a visit from a holocaust survivor next month is the culmination of a 14-year friendship, rich in meaning and poignant with remembrance.

Gallagher, an instructional facilitator at the Kent Mountainview Academy, along with students of the Kent School District, will be welcoming Gerda Weissman Klein, a renowned human rights speaker and Nazi labor-camp survivor, when she comes to speak June 7 at a holocaust symposium that Gallagher has organized.

Klein, whose memoir "All But My Life" was the basis of the Oscar-winning documentary "One Survivor Remembers," has been a friend of Gallagher's since a chance meeting in 1996 read more...

Kelly Wheeler - 2010 Bethel Teacher of the Year!

Congratulations to Kelly Wheeler, of Spanaway Lake High School, for receiving the Bethel School District's Teacher of the Year award!

Kelly's creativity and commitment to Holocaust education contributed to her selection.

Kelly has worked with the Holocaust Center for several years. Last year Kelly was one of two teachers sponsored by the Holocaust Center to attend the prestigious Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Summer Insitute at Columbia University in New York. Kelly is one of the Holocaust Center's master teachers, serving on the Holocaust Center's Education Advisory Committee and a presenter at the Center's teacher workshops. This summer Kelly will travel with the Holocaust Center and Museum Without Walls on a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague.

"Life may not be as simple as how and why, but asking those questions allows us to learn about ourselves and others," [Kelly Wheeler] said. "With understanding comes respect. With respect for others there is no racism, class distinction or gender bias." (Bethel Pride Newsletter)

Thank you Kelly for all of your incredible work within our community!

Image: Kelly Wheeler presenting at the Holocaust Center's Teacher workshop in Tacoma, November 2009.

Read article about Kelly Wheeler and the Teacher of the Year Award in the Bethel Pride - Click here.

Thank you Senator Ken Jacobsen!

As reported in the Seattle Times and on NPR, State Senator Ken Jacobsen will be retiring after 28 years as the representative for the 46th legislative district.

Senator Jacobsen is an ardent supporter of Holocaust education and a member of the Holocaust Center's Board of Directors. We are so proud and thankful for his contributions as both a legislator and champion of our mission!

Winners of Holocaust Writing/Art Contest in Local Newspapers

Bellevue girl honored in Holocaust writing, art contest
Bellevue Reporter
May 10, 2010

Caroline Nelson, a student from Ann Gilbert’s class at Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue won Honorable Mention in the 7th and 8th grade art category in the 2010 Jacob Friedman Holocaust Writing and Art Contest.

Her art piece was one of 750 entries that dealt with the question: How would your life be different if people were more respectful and tolerant of each other’s differences? How does change begin with you?

The contest was sponsored by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center

Caroline's explained her art work as follows:
"All these girls helped me take this picture. It took plenty of planning, but we all got together to take the picture.

What if the world did that? If the whole world got together to help another country, I would think that, by rising as one, we’d fix that country’s problem.

I asked several girls what their main heritage was. I wrote the names of all the different [heritages] onto shirts.

I was amazed by how many different [ones] we had at our school. I was amazed how all of them were my friends. That’s how change starts with me."... Read full article

Inspired Cedar Heights Middle School students place in Jacob Friedman art and essay competition
Covington Reporter News
May 14, 2010

A pair of Cedar Heights Middle School students earned prizes in the Jacob Friedman Holocaust Writing and Art Contest held by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center.

Both students, Laylan Tahir and Lucas Reider, are eighth graders in Sylvia O’Brien’s class at Cedar Heights.

“Students across the district, around the state and across the country study the Holocaust to learn about our world, past and present,” O’Brien explained via e-mail. “Many Kent students have spent several months studying the Holocaust and will attend three speaker symposiums. The Washington State Holocaust Research Center, located on Mercer Island, sponsors a contest each year to help further this study.”*

This year the focus was on Anne Frank, who often looked out at a chestnut tree she could see from her hiding place, and a sapling from that tree will be planted in Volunteer Park in Seattle.
Tahir won first place in the seventh and eighth grade writing category.

“Her essay compared her mother, who was a survivor of the Saddam Hussein regime and genocide of the Kurds, to Anne Frank,” O’Brien said.

The following is an excerpt from the entry:
Do you know the story behind my face? What do you see when you look at me? Do you see a typical teenage girl? Are you going to judge me without knowing me? I am a thirteen-year-old Kurdish girl; Anne Frank was a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl. They say there is no such thing as perfection. Although I believe that if people had more respect and tolerance for one another, that saying would definitely be proven wrong. The world would be better.

Reider won third place in the seventh and eighth grace art category. Inspired by Anne Frank’s view of the tree from her hiding place, he created a picture of the chestnut tree reaching through the earth spreading tolerance and change, respect and peace... Read full article

*The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center is located in downtown Seattle.

A Late Thank You

"A Late Thank You"

A letter from a student to a Holocaust survivor.*

Hi Al,

My name is xxxxx xxxxx, and I don't think you will remember me. But I met you four years ago when you came to xxxx High School and spoke in our auditorium. I am a senior now and I am taking a Holocaust and Genocide class, and for that class we had to read a book about a genocide and I chose to read your book.

Hearing your story once and reading it has made a huge difference in my life, because of hearing you my freshman year for my senior project I held an event called Camp Darfur in order to raise the awareness of the genocide going on in Sudan. Not only did I design postcards to be sent to President Obama but I also designed t-shirts and sold them to raise money for the millions of refugees. Overall I raised about $500 and sent it to an activist I worked with throughout my project, and she made sure that it got to a refugee camp and they used it for educational purposes.

And I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am that you were able to share your story at my high school, without hearing your story I think I wouldn't be the same person I am today.

For I went through a lot of troubles throughout my four years of high school but in every rough moment I had it just made me think of you and how I couldn't give up, I couldn't forget and I needed to stay strong so I can tell people of what happened during the Holocaust and all of the other genocides I am learning about. I also got your signature and the number that they tattooed on you written on a piece of paper, and that paper has never left my room.

I have met three survivors of genocides in my life so far and I have all of their signatures (yours included) and I wouldn't really like to get them tattooed on my body so I will never be able to forget about the stories I've heard and the horrendous crimes that people have been committing for such a long time now.

I don't think I can tell you thank you enough, you've really made a deep impression on my heart and there will always be a place for you as well as all of the other victims from the Holocaust in there.

One of my stories that I want to share with you is how I was close to committing suicide my junior year and I was about to swallow a bunch of pills when I looked over and saw your signature on my bulletin board and I felt extremely ridiculous for even thinking about committing suicide. Because I realized that if you can make it through the Holocaust and all those camps and the hardships that you went through then it means that I too can overcome the hardships in my life. You gave me hope, inspiration, and a new outlook on life. So I just wanted to send an email to you, wanting you to know how much gratitude and appreciation that I have for you. Thank you so incredibly much.

With love,

xxxxx xxxxxx

*Recently, Alter Wiener, a Holocaust survivor and member of both the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau and the Speakers Bureau of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center, received this letter from a student. Alter Wiener is the author of From A Name To A Number.

Liberator Dee E. travels to Germany

A member of our Speakers Bureau, Dee E., recently traveled to Germany for the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau. During the war, Dee was a soldier in the 42nd Rainbow Division that liberated the concentration camp.

Dee wrote us:

We returned from Dachau yesterday. After a long travel day (May 4, which seemed never ending) I am finally beginning to feel more or less normal.

Our time there from April 28 until May 4 included one ceremony after another, with survivors and their extended families from many countries.

We were invited guests of the Dutch Oud Dachauers, the International Dachau Committee, and the Dachau Memorial Museum. Our daughter from Alaska accompanied my wife and me and helped to keep me headed in the right directions for the multiple events and appearances.

Thank you to Katie E. for sending us pictures of their travels. For more information about the ceremony (and to see another pictures of Dee--he's on the left), read this article from the World Jewish Congress here...

Hot off the press

A tip from one of our ardent supporters, Mike C.:

New York Times
Op-Ed Columnist

The Banality of Good
By ROGER COHEN
Published: May 3, 2010

NEW YORK — What was it like? I would ask myself, the years I lived in Berlin. What was it like in the leafy Grunewald neighborhood to watch your Jewish neighbors — lawyers, businessmen, dentists — trooping head bowed to the nearby train station for transport eastward to extinction?

With what measure of fear, denial, calculation, conscience and contempt did neighbors who had proved their Aryan stock to Hitler’s butchers make their accommodations with this Jewish exodus? How good did the schnapps taste and how effectively did it wash down the shame?

Now I know. Thanks to Hans Fallada’s extraordinary “Every Man Dies Alone,” just published in the United States more than 60 years after it first appeared in Germany, I know. What Irène Némirovsky’s “Suite Française” did for wartime France after six decades in obscurity, Fallada does for wartime Berlin. Read more...

Last week the Holocaust Center hosted members of the Equal Opportunity Committee at Fort Lewis interested in learning about the services the center provides. They took a brief tour of the Center, looking at artifacts and learning about our mission. They also got an overview of programs and resources the Center offers such as teaching trunks, access to the Holocaust Center's library, and more!

Fort Lewis recently held a Holocaust Remembrance Day program on base, featuring one of the Center's Speakers Bureau members, Leo H.

UW Center for Human Rights celebration

From http://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/:

Mark your calendars and join the UW Center for Human Rights for:

Campus-Community Partnership for Human Rights: A Celebration

6:30-8:30 pm on Friday, May 7, 2010

Walker-Ames Room, Kane 225

On May 7, 2010, the new UW Center for Human Rights will celebrate its inaugural year of existence by bringing together individuals and organizations from the three UW campuses and from the community who are contributing to the promotion of human rights locally, domestically, and internationally. This will be an occasion for celebrating the many different voices articulating the importance of human rights on campus and beyond. Winners of undergraduate and graduate awards to support direct action projects for human rights will be announced. UW faculty associates of the center will be recognized. Human rights organizations from the region will present poster exhibits with information about their work and about volunteer opportunities. A light buffet will be provided.

Child survivors conference

For those interested:

World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust

22nd Annual International Conference

Child Survivors, Spouses and Families,

Second and Third Generation Members

November 5th - 8th, 2010

Skokie, Illinois

For more information, visit http://www.wfjcsh.org/, email Chicago2010@ilhmec.org or call (847) 967-4837.