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

German Right-wing Group Under Increased Public Scrutiny

German politicians are attempting to ban the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) after finding possible links between former NPD leader Ralf Wohlleben with the neo-Nazi terror cell known as the Zwickau cell. The allegations connect the NPD and Wohlleben with the murders of nine people of foreign origin and a police officer.

While past attempts to ban the NPD have failed, many believe the arrest of Wohlleben is the opportunity German officials have been waiting for to finally ban the party.

Link:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,801312,00.html

The discovery of the Zwickau cell and the arrest of Wohlleben have put a microscope on Germany’s far-right movement, and it appears that the groups are better armed than originally thought. According to Der Spiegel authorities confiscated 811 weapons from right-wing groups from 2008-2010.

Link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,800815,00.html

With My Own Eyes - DVD

300 classrooms around the state of Washington will use the Holocaust Center's new short documentary this year.

Want a free copy? Email us! (Please include your mailing address.)

Using the film in the classroom - We have two teacher trainings coming up at which we will be offering a session on how to use the film with your students.

• Bellevue on January 20


• Bellingham on February 17

More information can be found on our website at www.wsherc.org/news.

David Duke Held in Germany

Former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana politician David Duke was arrested in Cologne, Germany last week prior to a speaking engagement with a right-wing extremist group. Duke’s detention appears to be linked to a 2009 incident in the Czech Republic where he was detained and subsequently expelled from the country on suspicion of Holocaust denial.

Duke is not new to Holocaust denial. The Huffington Post points to “a 2006 appearance at a Holocaust denial conference in Tehran, Iran. The conference featured numerous speeches denouncing the Holocaust as a "myth." At the conference, Duke voiced support for discredited, fringe scholars imprisoned in Europe for denying the use of gas chambers against Jews during the Holocaust.”

Links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/david-duke-arrested-in-germany_n_1119010.html

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/04/3090552/david-duke-arrested-at-german-neo-nazi-event

Survivor speaks to homeless youth in Seattle

Speakers Bureau member Josh G. spoke to a group of individuals at Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets, an organization that provides support and services to homeless youth in the Seattle area. They aim to help youth transition from life on the streets to leading productive lives in the community.

Josh's story of survival during the Holocaust seemed to resonate with the audience, who could relate to some of his experiences. Among the important messages Josh story offered was the fact that he was able to remain resilient in the face of incredible adversity. After struggling to survive for years, Josh arrived in the United States after the war at age 16, with no possessions and no formal education to his name. Yet somehow he was able to graduate from high school, acquire a degree in psychology, and graduate from a Masters program in social work and administration.

Josh was born in Poland, where he experienced first-hand the fury of the Nazi regime. At the age of three, his grandfather, the village’s chief rabbi, was hung in the middle of town. Josh’s family decided to go into hiding to protect themselves from the Nazi regime. Josh’s father worked in his family's long-established lumber business and had many connections, which they used to go into hiding.

Posing as Christian Poles, they evaded capture and made their way to Siberia. Here, they came under the protection of the Soviet Army. Though they escaped immediate danger, life in Siberia was harsh. They faced the bitter cold and the threat of starvation. Eventually, they moved onward to Tashkent in Uzbekistan, where they spent the remainder of the war.

After the war, they returned to Poland, only to have the government officials reject them. Instead, they were sent to a displaced persons camp in Berlin. Throughout their time in Siberia, Uzbekistan, and Berlin, Josh’s family suffered under primitive conditions. Finally, the immigrated to the United States.

Gortler told the group that he was so used to having to scrounge for dirty water or melted snow, that he was overcome when he saw a full, clean basin of flowing water in the United States. He put his whole face in it and drank deeply, only afterward discovering it was a urinal.

Josh said he kept his story to himself for many years. It was only a decade ago, when he read about people who deny the Holocaust ever happened, that he knew he must tell his story and keep the memory and lessons of the Holocaust alive. He has been a dedicated member of the Center's Speakers Bureau for many years.

Voices for Humanity 2011 - Thank you!

VOICES FOR HUMANITY LUNCHEON 2011

Together we raised $264,500 in support of Holocaust education!

Thank you to all 575 of you who attended the Voices for Humanity Luncheon on November 8, 2011 at the Westin in Seattle. And, thank you to the many others who contributed to this annual fundraiser.

Your donation supports our mission of teaching and learning for humanity.

As a small non-profit, each of our donors is important to us. Donors like you who believe in the mission of our Center and the critical importance of Holocaust, tolerance and genocide education, have sustained our efforts and allowed us to continue our outreach to students, teachers and community members.

See photos of the event!

Using comics to teach about video testimony

New teaching materials to accompany online video testimonies!

http://www.wsherc.org/teaching/testimonies/

Created by three of the Holocaust Center's master teachers:
Lindsey Mutschler, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle, WA
Suzanne Bottelli, The Northwest School, Seattle, WA
Carrie McCallum, St. Helens High School, St. Helens, OR

Lessons include:

Using Survivor Testimony - to create comics: a story in drawings
Using Survivor Testimony - to teach about the Holocaust and to connect these lessons to today
Using Survivor Testimony - to understand resistance during the Holocaust

Project was made possible thanks to a grant from 4Culture and Humanities Washington.

TDHS students & parents visit the Holocaust Center

On Sunday, November 13, the 6th grade Sunday school class from Temple De Hirsch Sinai, along with their parents, visited the Holocaust Center.

While here, they had the opportunity to ask questions of survivor Peter M., view the Center's artifacts, and check out items from the Center's library.

It was a fantastic group - insightful, inquisitive, and attentive. The Holocaust Center thanks the entire group and the TDHS staff for making the visit possible!

New Online Exhibit! Video Testimonies from 3 Washington State Survivors

New Online Exhibit! Excerpts of video testimonies from 3 Washington State Holocaust survivors. Exhibit includes maps, photo galleries, and timelines.

Katie Welch, a student at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, spent the summer as an intern for the Holocaust Center and helped to design the project. Katie's dedication, combined with her incredible research and technological skills helped to make these online video testimonies a user-friendly resource.

A corresponding teacher guide will be available in December.

This project was made possible thanks to funding from Humanities Washington and 4Culture.

Preparing her students to hear a survivor

Thousands of students will hear survivors this year through our speakers bureau. How do you prepare students for this experience? Here is one example of a teacher doing an outstanding job.

What do you do in your classroom to prepare your students? We want to know! Email us!

Anna Roberts, Olympic View Middle School, Mukilteo, WA

Will the students be reading any Holocaust-related books? Which ones?:
All students will have finished up reading Elie Wiesel's Night.

What will you be doing to prepare your students:
We prepare our students by sending a letter home, explaining to their parents the rare and special opportunity of having a Holocaust guest speaker come to visit and tell their life stories. In addition, we have them read up on our guest speaker, prior to that day, so they can anticipate what will be spoken about that day. Most importantly, we prepare our kids by going over behavior expectations during our time with the speaker and we have them prepare appropriate questions to ask our speaker, if given an opportunity for questions. All our students have learned the background of the Holocaust and have read Elie Wiesel's Night.

Group goals and goals for the speaker presentation: Our goal is to have our students make a personal connection through having the opportunity to hear from someone who witnessed first hand the atrocities of the Holocaust. having a speaker that was there and has their personal story to tell makes this part of history they have learned about much more real and in the process, deepens their understanding about this time. In addition, our goal is for kids to build empathy for those victims of the Holocaust.

Special Needs:
If possible, we would like a question and answer session that opens it up for kids to ask the guest speaker questions.

Additional Info:
We have had a guest speaker come to OV for the past 5 years when we began teaching Night commonly in our Language Arts blocks. Ann Freemon, now a teacher at Mariner HS, had seen Henry Friedman speak at another school and had encouraged us to book him as a guest speaker. Since then, we have invited a speaker every year. We value your efforts and time given to teach our kids life long lessons about the Holocaust.

7 years later...

Melissa Tatum, Sylvia O'Brian and Pat Gallagher - teachers in Kent - have worked together and taught the Holocaust for many years.

The other day, Ms. Tatum received the following email from a former student:

Mrs. Tatum,
Seven years ago, I was in 8th grade honors English with you, being co-taught by Mrs. O'Brian. We did a whole unit on the Holocaust and spent a significant period of time talking about it. Mrs. O'Brian posed the question "Was Hitler a great leader?" which nobody was able to answer at the time. I spent this past summer studying abroad in Africa, and have done extensive research and study on the current and past struggles of Africa recently. During colonization, King Leopold II of Belgium successfully manipulated his country, and the rest of the world into supporting him in the slaughtering of 10 million native peoples of the Congo. I have not thought about your class in a long time, but the question about Hitler lingered in the back of my mind as I learned about the colonization of Africa, and I think I finally have an answer. 13-year-old me was unwilling to call Hitler "great" for any reason. But, in all honesty, Hitler was a great leader. He successfully got and entire continent, if not an entire world, to believe what he believed, and manipulated people into helping him complete the genocide of millions of people. He was a terrible person, but he was a great leader. He was able to entrance a whole population into following him and his beliefs, and accomplished what he set out to do. So, seven years after the fact, I wanted to answer that question for you.
Monika

L'Shanah Tovah!

Books | A horrifying history of the Reich's violent end | Seattle Times Newspaper

New book review in the Seattle Times: Ian Kershaw's horrifying history of the Reich's violent end.

New Additions to the Holocaust Trunks - Artifacts

Creating a replica of an artifact from the Holocaust took serious consideration. However, the requests from teachers for tangible objects to help share the stories and history of the Holocaust encouraged us to pilot the use of replica artifacts in the Holocaust teaching trunks. We added one replica passport (from Heinz Schwartz) and one replica star to each of the trunks along with corresponding teaching materials that include more information about each of these objects and how to analyze artifacts.

Reserve your trunk now!

The Attic Theatre Presents "The Diary of Anne Frank"

The Attic Theatre, based in Seattle and offering "theatre with a message to our community"since 1996, is presenting Wendy Kesselman's adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank this weekend. Premiers Friday the 23rd through Sunday, October 2nd, in the Chapel Theatre at Woodinville Alliance Church - 13940 NE 166th Street - Woodinville, WA, 98072. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30, Saturday matinees at 2:30, and Sunday matinees at 1:30.

From the Managing and Producing Director of the production, Mark Lewis, "We have brought together a very strong cast to present what we feel is a very strong message that is as pertinent today as it was in the 1940's. A message of a time in history that needs to always be remembered as a horrific intolerance of man's inhumanity to man. A message to be remembered so as to never be repeated." He has so kindly offered a special rate of $10 to anyone who identifies themselves as being referred from the WSHERC, or to anyone who identifies themselves as a holocaust survivor, he offers a complimentary ticket. Don't miss out!

For more information on the production or The Attic Theatre, visit their website here.

Between the Two Rivers, Second Edition

Aida Kouyoumjian is a local speaker who tells her parent's story of survival in the Armenian Genocide. She recently released the second edition of her book, "Between the Two Rivers," via Coffeetown Press.

The first edition, available at the Holocaust Center's library, won first place (Washington State) in the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) At-Large Communications Contest in the nonfiction: history category.

Aida is a member of the Holocaust Center's speakers bureau and speaks frequently to students in the Pacific Northwest region.

Find out more about Aida's story by visiting her blog.

For more information on book purchase and/or to watch a trailer about the book, click here. The new edition will be available soon in the WSHERC library, definitely worth reading!

New to the Center!

Hi all! My name is Brenna, and this is my 3rd official day interning at the WSHERC. I'm a senior at the University of Washington, born and raised in Montana, studying social sciences, and will graduate this March with an undergraduate degree in 'law, societies, and justice'. To be honest, I'm not sure where this degree will take me, but I'm interested in working with the community towards the awareness of the greater good! I continually work in staying open to what comes my way, with as broad of an outlook I can manage. ;)

Berlin's Holocaust Memorial

Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews
By Debbie Carlson, Teacher at Meridian Middle School, Kent

Debbie Carlson just recently returned from a Holocaust study trip to Amsterdam and Berlin, offered by Museum Without Walls and supported by the Holocaust Center. Debbie is one of the Holocaust Center's Master Teachers and a recent alumni of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Summer Institute.

I walked around a corner or across a street and there it was, I recognized it immediately. We were a group of fifteen, but were given seven minutes to wander alone. So I dove in, literally. The memorial was made as a maze of rectangular cement blocks all the same width and length, but different heights. I think I learned later that there were 2,711 different blocks. I walked through them as you would walk through a maze. No identification. No words. No labels. Just acres of these concrete blocks. In some ways they reminded me of coffins.

I wanted to just sit lost among the blocks, but there was no time. I had to process my feelings quickly and rejoin the group. It was very difficult to consider the murder of 6,000,000 Jews being represented by acres of concrete tomb- looking blocks in such a short time. I kept noticing how the ground was uneven, there were places where it was so slanted one felt off balance, the passage ways were dark and narrow - only enough room for one person at a time, and the surfaces of the blocks created an undulating effect as I looked across the sea of concrete blocks. Suddenly I imagined what it must have felt like for the Jews to have their own lives thrown into such chaos. They had no solid ground anymore. They were constantly being squeezed into smaller, tighter, scarier spaces. They had no straight path to follow; they never knew what was around the next corner. The memorial began to make perfect sense.

As I rejoined our group I asked the guide if there was an official entrance or a sign or something to tell the public what the place was all about. No such sign and no such designated entrance. No wonder there were people climbing all over the blocks, sunning themselves, jumping from box to box enjoying a summer afternoon. I was horrified. But didn't the world do that while 6,000,000 Jews were being murdered?

Help us welcome these NEW BOOKS to our collection!

The following books can be borrowed from our library or by emailing info@wsherc.org

Storming the Tulips

Ronald Sanders

Taken from Stonebrook Publishing:

“The stories in this book make us realize how important it is to teach compassion, understanding and tolerance for people who may appear to be different than us. These life-lessons are even more important in today’s society. We must learn about history to understand our current world situations.”

Diana Schumacher, 8th grade Middle School Teacher, St. Louis, MO

Is It Night or Day? A Novel of Immigration and Survival, 1938-1942

Fern Schumer Chapman

Taken from Authors and Illustrators Book Review:

"...This book is an exceptional story of survival and devotion to homeland. The author's note and afterword contain inspiring information about the background and reasoning behind this book. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl and this book would be great companions for showing how children's lives were affected by the Holocaust. This is a wonderful study of the Holocaust in a way that young readers will understand. Highly Recommended."

Jo Drudge, Library Media Connection, Starred Review

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

Erik Larson

Excerpt from the Seattle Times :

“A nonfiction chronicle, based on the lives of an American family who spent a year in Berlin as Hitler rose to absolute power, Larson's book raises the question the world still struggles with: How do we know implacable evil when we see it? When is enough enough? ...As a suspense narrative, "Beast" achieves mixed results: It's hard to warm up to the well-meaning but outmanned Dodd and his feckless, flirtatious daughter. But as a work of popular history, "Beasts" is gripping, a nightmare narrative of a terrible time. It raises again the question never fully answered about the Nazi era — what evil humans are capable of, and what means are necessary to cage the beast.”

Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times Book Editor

Benno and the Night of Broken Glass

Meg Wiviott

Illustrator: Josée Bisaillon

From School Library Journal:

“The straightforward text describes events without sentimentality, as if Benno were simply reporting what he sees and hears…But what truly distinguishes this book is the striking multimedia artwork composed of paper, fabric, and drawn images in hues of olive, brown, and red. Interesting angles, textures, and patterns add to the visual effect throughout. The spreads depict a normal city neighborhood from a cat's-eye view, which is eventually upended by dark shadowy figures with big black boots. Thus the message of terror and sadness that marks the beginning of the Holocaust is transmitted in a way that is both meaningful and comprehensible. An afterword provides historical context for the story, although it presupposes knowledge of the term ‘Holocaust.’”

Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library

Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto

Susan Goldman Rubin

Illustrator: Bill Farnsworth

From the JTNews:

“[An] illustrated work marked as being for 6 to 10 year olds. Because of its focus on the rescue of children in jeopardy and because of the separation and abandonment issues involved, I’d call it more suited for 8 years and up. The paintings are exceptional and the story of this tiny Polish social worker is inspiring as it shows how she quietly and ingeniously helped smuggle nearly 400 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, while keeping careful records of their identities so they could be reunited with their families should any survive the war.”

Rita Berman Frischer, JTNews, Seattle, WA

The Druggist of Auschwitz: A Documentary Novel

Dieter Schlesak

Taken from the Seattle Times:

“There are no heroes here, no saints — and even Adam's wistful hope that ‘their suffering was not in vain, that death is merely a transition, a being-set-free for a world of light’ is but the flicker of a match in a hurricane. This is not an easy narrative to read, and the truths it reveals and embodies are not easy to face. It will fill you with despair and rage and terrible shame at the infinite ingenuity of human cruelty. By steeling himself not to flinch before the hideous reality of the Holocaust, Schlesak has created a beautiful book.”

David Laskin, Special to the Seattle Times

Before the Holocaust: Three German-Jewish Lives 1870-1939

Editor and Translator: Thomas Dunlap

From the PR Web:

“Author Thomas Dunlap guides readers of Before the Holocaust through the lives of three German Jews spanning the years from 1870 to 1939: Käte Frankenthal, Max Moses Polke, and Joseph Benjamin Levy. …These autobiographies reveal what sort of lives were possible for Jews in the years after the establishment of the Reich in 1871, when German Jews were finally granted full political and civic right. They provide insight into German society, into the turbulent history and politics of the Weimar period, and into the circumstances that led to the rise of the National Socialists. Finally, they chronicle the assault on the Jewish community in the years 1933 to 1939, before the onset of systematic genocide.”

Xlibris Publishing Company

Days of Aloes

Helena Edwards and Virginia Lown

The true story of a young Polish woman’s struggle to survive in one of Stalin’s notorious slave labour camps.

Identifying Mass Graves in Eastern Poland & Ukraine

Information on Nazi-Era Mass Graves To Be Made Available to the Public

Father Debois Has Devoted Seven Years To Documenting the S.S. Killing Fields in Eastern Europe

By Nathan Guttman
The Jewish Daily Forward
Published May 25, 2011, issue of June 03, 2011.

Washington — For seven years, the Rev. Patrick Debois has devoted his life to locating and marking the mass graves of Jews murdered by the Nazis. Now, the work of the Catholic priest is going online — thanks to a joint initiative between his Paris-based organization and Washington’s United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Yahad — In Unum, founded and directed by Debois, has documented mass graves in some 600 Eastern European villages. Information about those gravesites, as well as videotaped accounts from villagers who witnessed the Nazi roundups and killings, will be available this summer at the U.S. Holocaust museum. Yahad — In Unum has also joined forces with the American Jewish Committee to help ensure that the newly discovered gravesites are protected.
“I have the conviction we cannot build a modern Europe with thousands of mass graves of Jews killed like animals,” Debois said at a May 12 State Department gathering held in his honor. “We cannot build a new world if we keep on being silent.”
...

Hannah Rosenthal, a State Department special envoy and head of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, suggested Jewish communities consider supporting/adopting villages to help maintain mass graves and/or create memorials. There is no formal local effort yet to do this, but we are looking to see if there is interest. If you are interested, please email Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education, at ilanak@wsherc.org.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/138121/#ixzz1RGVCE1is

Accordions - New Artifacts

The donation of two accordions bring musical instruments to our collection. Both instruments were found on the ground at Dachau/Kaufering by General P. when he went in with the 101st Division. They were played by prisoners to entertain the guards, thereby keeping them alive. The General brought them home to Seattle to be played by his musical family.

The small accordion is a 25 key 32 button Sibylla made in Germany in the late 1930's. The celluloid grill is a lovely cutout design. Its light weight would have made it easy for a prisoner with little strength to play.

The larger accordion (pictured above) is a German Hohner with 80 buttons and 34 keys. It is a bit heavier in weight, and is the kind of instrument used to play "folk music".

Both instruments need work before they can be used, but it was a special thrill to hear the sounds that came from these 70 year old accordions that had so many stories they could tell.

An Open Letter from a Teacher in Reardan

Schools today are financially limited in what types of outside materials they bring into their classrooms for their students. Our school in Reardan is no exception.

I wanted to do something with the Holocaust in my English classroom and the Holocaust Center provided the perfect opportunity for me to propose the unit to my school principal. The Writing contest and various articles and series found in the Seattle Times were enough to convince the principal that this program would benefit students in academic content and personal growth and development.

Over the past 4 years, I have utilized Ms. Kennedy and the Holocaust Center to help fill the holes in my Holocaust curriculum and to find ways to stimulate students. From the trunks, the Everyday Objects collections and lesson plans and the speakers bureau students are going beyond learning. So many of my students ask "how" and "why". When they have a chance to make use of the support from the Holocaust Center they gain a larger picture of the world in which they live.

We owe a thank you to the many donors who make the teaching trunks possible. That first year I reserved the teaching trunks and watched my students' interest magnify substantially as they were able to find history beyond the text book.

My students are influenced beyond measure when the speakers and Holocaust survivors have come into our school. Watching them connect and realize that they have a responsibility to share what they know both verbally and through action is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a teacher.

I have had the privilege to take a group of students to Washington DC these last 3 years and because of the Holocaust Center a must stop for my students is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This year, I had 6 girls, hold hands and pray in the Hall of Remembrance for those taken unjustly, for those who fought to free them, and for those left remembering. They lit a candle under the Auschwitz camp and when I asked them why there...they replied that one of our Speakers, Noemi Ban had loved ones who were taken from her at Auschwitz and they thought about them and Noemi as they progressed through the museum.

Upon leaving the museum, one student from another school said the Holocaust was too depressing to think about. My student replied that it was important to learn from the past and that the museum's purpose was not to make us feel bad but rather remind us that our actions, from little to large can impact the future significantly.

For students looking into the eyes of strong individuals who share their stories, the horror of the Holocaust is not only an event happening across the globe before their lifetime, these atrocities become real and the students a vessel for change. Students become our future and with the help and support of the Holocaust Center they will speak out, they will have a chance to make the right choice and they will never forget. Thank you.

Kristy Koch, Teacher, Reardan Middle School, Reardan

The Jewish Day School, Bellevue

4th grade students in Nance Adler's class at the Jewish Day School studied and researched Jewish partisans during the Holocaust. For their individual projects on Jewish heroes, five of the students chose partisans.

"The kids love learning about the Partisans and it has added a wonderful new aspect to their study of Jewish Heroes," writes Nance Adler.

Nance has attended several professional development programs through the Holocaust Center, including one in January 2011 that focused on Jewish partisans. This particular seminar was offered in conjunction with the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation and Nance encouraged her students to use materials and biographies of partisans from their website.

The culmination of the Jewish Heroes unit was a Heroes Museum.

One student made a mailbox and had letters to and from Partisan Sonia Orbuch with questions to her about her life and then her answers back.

"The classes that came through our museum, as well as parents and other teachers, were really impressed with what the partisans did and for many of them this was the first time that they had heard of them."

The Speakers Bureau is now using Skype!

The Holocaust Center is turning to technology to expand the reach of the Speakers Bureau! This includes using programs like Skype, a software application that allows users to make voice/video calls over the internet. Skype is a great way for speakers to share stories with a broader audience, without having to confront the difficulties of travel. This will be an important resource as time goes on and fewer speakers are able to travel beyond the borders of their home towns.

Armed with a laptop and speakers, Center staff conducted the first Skype engagement in WSHERC history with speaker Magda Schaloum. Typically, Magda's engagements do not venture outside the greater Seattle area. Therefore, when a school in Moses Lake, Washington requested Magda as a speaker, the Center saw a perfect opportunity to test Skype and evaluate its viability as part of the Speakers Bureau.

Jessica Merritt's 11th/12th graders at Columbia Basin Secondary School in Moses Lake were eager participants. Overall, both participants and speaker called the engagement a success. "It was wonderful to hear Magda's story...and great that we were able to use Skype," said Ms. Merritt. "I really think this is something the center should continue to utilize so schools on the eastern side of the state can benefit from the survivors' presentations."

The Center hopes that Skype will provide more opportunities for schools across Washington State and the Pacific Northwest to utilize the Speakers Bureau. We will continue to fine tune this process and hope to see more willing participants use Skype in the 2011-2012 school year.

To learn more about the Speakers Bureau, click here.

East Valley Middle School, Spokane

East Valley Middle School in Spokane hosted Holocaust survivor Noemi Ban this past month.

Each year, teacher Julie Scott invites and makes arrangements for Ms. Ban to visit her students and share her story of hope and inspiration.

From the students:
"I was honored to meet her."

"Inspiring."

"She looked just like an ordinary senior citizen on the outside, but it was like opening up a really extraordinary book that has just an ordinary cover."

"She has a softer, grandma like exterior, but seemed really tough on the inside to handle what she went through."

"Extraordinary."

"There should be a movie made about her story because it would get five stars (out of five)."

East Valley Middle School, Spokane

Peter M., Holocaust survivor and member of the Holocaust Center's speakers bureau, spoke to students yesterday at East Valley Middle School in Spokane.

Their teacher, Julie Scott, has long contributed to the Holocaust Center's programs with her knowledge and teaching experience. Julie is an Alfred Lerner Fellow from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, a Museum fellow from the USHMM, a member of the Holocaust Center's Education Advisory Committee, and a frequent presenter at the Holocaust Center's programs.