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Trial Continues for Demjanjuk, Accused Sobibor Guard

Accused Sobibor guard still on trial. Thomas Blatt, long-time Seattle resident and one of only 53 survivors of Sobibor, testified earlier in the trial against Demjanjuk.

Demjanjuk threatens hunger strike in Holocaust trial

Eva Lassman, Holocuast Survivor and Speakers Bureau Member, dies

We are very sorry to share that Eva Lassman, Holocaust survivor and member of the Holocaust Center's speakers bureau, died on February 9. Eva was the only survivor living in the Spokane area who frequently shared her incredible story with students. Eva inspired so many - she will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.

Article in the Spokesman Review

Holocaust Survivor Meets with Kent Students

Holocaust survivor Magda Schaloum meets with Kent students, shares her experiences

By LAURA PIERCE
Kent Reporter Editor
Feb 02 2011

To those who have ever doubted there was a Holocaust, Magda Schaloum has news for them.

It happened.

Every terror, every faded photograph, every recollection whispered in a tear-roughened voice.
“Unfortunately, even today there are people who say the Holocaust never happened,” said Schaloum, now in her 80s, but buoyant with life.

To describe those years of dehumanizing treatment and fear is her way to countering the lies that the Holocaust never was.

“I think it is my obligation,” she told the gymnasium of students and staff at Meridian Middle School.

Schaloum, who survived the Nazis and went on to marry and raise a family with a fellow death-camp survivor, is a speaker with the Washington State Holocaust Resource Center, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to assisting educators in teaching about the holocaust, and in connecting local survivors to speak publicly about their experiences.

Schaloum was present at the request of Meridian teacher Debbie Carlson. She spoke Jan. 27, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Her presentation that day also was a key part of studies for Meridian’s eighth-graders, who are learning about the Holocaust in class. Read full article.

Accused Nazi Living in Bellevue Dies

Peter Egner, accused Nazi living in Bellevue, dies before his trial which was scheduled for February 22, 2011.

Egner, 88, was accused of assisting in the murder of thousands of Jews in Serbia in 1940 - 1943. The government was considering deporting Egner, who lied about his involvement when he immigrated to the United States in 1960 and applied for citizenship.

Egner had denied all claims of involvement.

Read full story

Magda S., Holocaust Survivor, at Meridian Middle School

Meridian Middle School Honors International Holocaust Remembrance Day

In education, studying primary source documents is often a valuable tool. Meridian’s eighth-graders had an opportunity to hear from the ultimate primary source, a living witness to the Holocaust, as part of their language arts literature study. Mrs. Magda Schaloum, an eighty-eight year old Hungarian survivor of the Holocaust spoke to students sharing her story of deportation from her Hungarian village, life in Auschwitz and the Plaszow work camp in Poland, a weapons factory in Germany, and finally liberation from Muhldorf, another concentration camp in Germany at the end of World War II.

January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, in 1945. Listening to Mrs. Schaloum share her survival story was a powerful way for the students to honor the memories of the more than 6,000,000 Jewish people, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the mentally and physically handicapped, and homosexuals who lost their lives under the Nazi regime from 1933-1945.

Students honored Mrs. Schaloum with flowers and their undivided attention as she told of her moving experiences losing her father, mother, and brother. She told of her personal humiliation, brutal beatings, starvation diet, deprivation, and fear under the horrors of the Nazis. On the tender and sweet side, she shared about the meeting of her husband, a Greek Holocaust survivor, in a displaced persons camp shortly after the end of the war. Mrs. Schaloum began telling her survival story about twenty years ago when many were denying the Holocaust altogether. She knew she had to speak out and make sure the world never forgets.

At the closing of her visit to Meridian Middle School, Mrs. Schaloum was in tears as she said good-bye to the students and shared how much she had been blessed by them as an audience with their gifts of flowers and honor of her. She told the students she had never been treated so well and felt so loved in all of her years of visiting schools. She closed telling them she loved them all and challenged them to never let anyone put them down or allow them to believe they were not valuable and important.

Meridian eighth-graders in Miss Do’s and Mrs. Carlson’s classes have been doing a literature study of the Holocaust in preparation for reading The Diary of Anne Frank, a piece of literature commonly read by eighth-graders nationally. They have been reading about the survivors, rescuers, and resistors involved in life in the Jewish ghettos, concentration camps, and how many were hidden and protected from the Nazi atrocities. Both teachers share a passion for encouraging students to become contributing citizens of the world, honoring and valuing all human life. Studying the Holocaust is a way to learn from the past, honor those whose lives were stolen from them, and look to the future with eyes of tolerance and acceptance. Students are challenged to consider and make personal commitments to change patterns of bullying, harassment, and hatred of other human beings.

The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center provides teaching trunks, with many primary source materials, literature units, posters, and other resources for teaching the Holocaust and making the link to the present with anti-bullying campaigns and the prevention of future genocides. Meridian Middle School has adopted their theme of “Change Begins with Me” with a huge, beautiful new wall hanging in the eighth grade pod, created by Mr. Bogle. The WSHERC also maintains a list of local Holocaust survivors who are willing to visit schools and other groups to share their own personal stories. Magda Schaloum is part of this local speakers bureau.

January 27 - International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Help us to collect 2600 signatures to represent the family members of local Holocaust survivors who were murdered in the Holocaust.

SIGN NOW!

Click the link above to add your name in remembrance.

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More about International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Taking the Holocaust Center's Message to Heart

Meridian Middle School's new banner - inspired by the Holocaust Center!

Special thanks to teacher Debbie Carlson for initiating the project!

Letter to the Holocaust Center from a teacher

Dear Holocaust Center,

I just have to take a few minutes to tell you how thankful I am for the work you all do and for how much you have done for me. This week I began teaching my most favorite teaching unit – the Holocaust and The Diary of Anne Frank. The first year I taught the diary was only about five years ago. I’d read the story myself, knew it was a good one and jumped in with my classes not really knowing what I was doing because deep in my heart I knew studying the book / play was far more/bigger than reading and writing. I didn’t know where to begin, but being someone with a deep faith, I knew God could use whatever I would do!

(Photo - Debbie Carlson, center, in Prague this past summer studying the Holocaust on a program sponsored by the Holocaust Center and Museum Without Walls.)

Fortunately, someone put me in touch with the WSHERC. I began taking every class I could and started soaking up all of the information and passion for the subject. It didn’t take long before I realized that Holocaust education and ALL that it encompasses was why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place. The very first paper I wrote when I started my Masters in Teaching program was about my desire to change lives and lead students to be responsible, caring citizens of the world. I’m sure most teachers feel the same way when they start out! When I started taking the classes and workshops you offered and used your resources, it all came together. You provided me the platform I needed to fulfill what I really care about as a teacher.

This week, as I stood among my students hoping I wouldn’t cry when I tried to tell them how important this unit is to me and what I hope they will get from it – I realized you all as individuals and all of the work done by the center have become my backbone!

I had my students do a little exercise where they listed some of the things they have “heard” about the Holocaust. As I began to clarify some of their many misconceptions I realized how I was using so much of what I learned through my trip and the workshops I have attended. I feel informed! I’ve been part of bigger discussions that give me a better or different perspective to share with the kids. I am so much more confident this year – yet I still carry on with fear and trepidation because I want to make sure that everything I say and do will be a positive learning experience for these young lives!

So – thank you to each of you as individuals for your commitment to the subject and for your friendship and support. Thank you WSHERC for being my source and my resource! You make what I want to do possible and you make me more of the teacher that I so long to be!

Looking forward to years of a relationship with you all,
Debbie Carlson
Meridian Middle School, Kent

"Every year is a great year" says local survivor

Every new year is a great year, says Auschwitz survivor, local resident
By Steve Shay West Seattle Herald
2011-01-01

While many this time of year recall personal ups and downs in 2010, and hold renewed hopes for 2011, West Seattle's Hermine Berner, 91, believes her life is a miracle and, in recent history, each of her years has passed with much optimism.

"People ask me, 'What's your secret?' " said Berner, referring to her sharp and active mind and body. "Why do they ask? You think I look young? You think that's a secret?" she said with a sample of her sarcastic wit.

Berner, who lives near Alki, does have secret of another sort, one she speaks about when gently persuaded. She is a Holocaust survivor who was shipped to Auschwitz, the notorious concentration camp in German-occupied Poland, while visiting Budapest, Hungary with her father. Their home was in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Read full article...

Obama and others refuse to use the "G" word in the case of the Armenians

Armenian community is still waiting to hear from CongressBy Haykaram Nahapetyan - 12/27/10
The Hill's Congress Blog

The “lame-ducking” Congress did not vote on H-Res 252 recognizing the period of systematic massacres of the Armenian people during the WW1 as genocide. On March 4th, it passed House Foreign Affairs Committee with 23 to 22 votes but speaker Nancy Pelosi did not bring the Armenian Genocide Resolution to the floor agenda, despite her initial pledge. There was a certain pressure from State Department as well as from the Turkish lobby in order to prevent it from happening....

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It’s noteworthy that President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton actively supported the Armenian Genocide Resolution, when they were candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency in 2008. Read more...

Holocaust video games - a way to learn or trivializing?

What do you think? Should Holocaust video games be allowed?


Holocaust video game pulled
Protest from Jewish organizations causes Maxim Genis to withdraw SonderKommando Revolt whose aim is to escape camp, kill Nazi soldiersGoel Beno, Ynetnews.com
Published: 12.26.10

Programmer Maxim Genis has decided to withdraw his Shoah-based video game following widespread protest against the use of the Holocaust as a backdrop to this kind of activity.
The video game, titled Sonderkommando Revolt and set during a violent prisoner uprising at the Auschwitz death camp, was created by the Israeli video game developer using the real-world uprising at Auschwitz in October 1944 as the backdrop for the game...Read more...

From the news

US urged to extradite ex-Nazi suspect to SerbiaDec. 22 - Associated Press. Forbes.com.
Former Nazi in Seattle area. He and his unit are accused of murdering over 17,000 Jews in Serbia.

Yad Vashem has compiled list of over 4 million names of Holocaust victimsDec. 22 - By Nir Hasson. Haaretz.com.
Authority in Jerusalem says more than 1.5 million names were added to the archives in the last decade.

Controversial genocide resolution may hit floor of House in final daysDec. 19 - By Bridget Johnson. The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Schools across the country recognize the Armenian genocide and teach about it as such - when will Congress finally address it appropriately?

Center will tell Cambodian story
Dec. 17 - Greg Mellan, Press-Telegram
New Khmer Genocide Study and Resource Center in California

From A Student

Hi, I am a student at Hoquiam Middle School and Peter [a Holocaust survivor] came to my school and spoke about the Holocaust. I thought that was just awesome. His story made me think about how lucky I am that I was not in the Holocaust and that I got a family to give me a home and food. So I know if that ever happend to me I would just die. So thank you Peter.

Pictures of Resistance - Exhibit & Teacher Workshop

PICTURES OF RESISTANCE:
The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman

Opening Reception - January 13
Teacher Workshop - January 14
Exhibit - January 13 -February 17, 2011Programs and display at Hillel, University of Washington, Seattle
Sponsored by the Holocaust Center in partnership with Hillel.

Special Guest - Sharon Rennert, granddaughter of Jewish partisan commander Tuvia Bielski. January 13 & 14.
OPENING RECEPTION - January 13, 2011. 6:30pm - 8:30pm.
Keynote speakers: Sharon Rennert, granddaughter of Tuvia Bielski, the commander of the Bielski Partisan group (made famous by the recent movie, "Defiance"), and a documentary filmmaker shares her family's compelling story of courage and resistance; and Mitch Braff, Executive Director and Founder, Jewish Partisans Educational Foundation.
RSVP - admin@wsherc.org

TEACHER WORKSHOP - January 14, 2011. 8:30am - 3:00pm.Presentations by Mitch Braff, "Women in the Partisans," and Sharon Rennert, "In Our Hands: A Personal Story of the Bielski Partisans." Clock hours available. $10 registration fee. Space is limited - register now!

Special thanks to the Shemanksi Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, King Country 4Culture, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, for supporting this exhibit and programming. Exhibit is produced by the Jewish Partisans Educational Foundation.