Upcoming Events
Tuesday, July 21 | Jessica Fenton: Granddaughter of Polish Holocaust Survivors
12:00-1:00pm PT
Jessica Fenton grew up in South Florida very close to her grandparents, Natalie and Murray Borenstein. Jessica knew that her grandparents and their friends and neighbors were Holocaust survivors. As an adult, Jessica dug deeper to learn of her grandparents' past. She collected documents, video, and photos of her grandparents' lives and shared them with the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Jessica Fenton officially joined the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau in 2020 to share the stories of her grandparents and to ensure that their legacies lived on.
JOIN ON FACEBOOK LIVE ON July 21
Upcoming Presentations
Join us for our weekly Lunch-and-Learn series to hear children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, notable speakers on timely issues, and historical experts. Lunch-and-Learns will be offered at the same time every Tuesday. A separate link will be posted for each event.
12:00 - 1:00pm (PT) Every Tuesday
Tuesday, July 28 | Jim Crow Laws and Nazi Racial Policy: How the United States Influenced Hitler
With Professor Tom White, Keene State College
Tom White is the Coordinator of Educational Outreach for the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College in New Hampshire. He is a regular lecturer at Keene and throughout the country. He taught for 16 years at Keene High School before receiving a Fellowship to create his current position. He served on the Diocese of Manchester's Diocesan Ecumenical Commission for Interfaith Relations; serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO); has participated as observer and facilitator in the Global Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation; received NEA New Hampshire’s Champion of Human and Civil Rights Award in 2009; and in 2015 was named a Peace Ambassador by the Center for Peacebuilding from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Image at right: A Jewish woman sits on a bench marked "Only for Jews," Austria, 1938.
Tuesday, August 4 | Peter Metzelaar: Holocaust Survivor
Peter Metzelaar, a native of the Netherlands, was just seven when his entire family was seized by the Nazis except for him and his mother, Elli. Pete then endured the Holocaust under various harrowing circumstances -- from time in hiding on the farm of a non-Jewish couple, to going to school posing as a Christian boy, to a daring escape on a Nazi truck with his mother dressed as a Red Cross nurse. Pete is a longtime member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity Speakers Bureau and resides in Seattle with his wife, Bea.
Past Presentations
Catch up on the presentations you missed!
July 14, 2020 | Overlooked: People with Mental Illness and Disabilities During the Holocaust | With Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle, Pacific Lutheran University (Link coming soon to video)
Among the programs the Nazi regime created was a secret project called "Aktion T-4" or the "Euthanasia Project" to rid themselves of the "unwanted" people. Not only did 70,000 adults and approximately 5,000 children die, but Hitler used these early mass killings as training for how he'd be able to efficiently and systematically commit genocide. Dr. Griech-Polelle is the Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies at Pacific Lutheran University.
July 7, 2020 | From Anne Frank's Amsterdam to Present-Day Seattle: An Arc Spanning Over Eighty Years | Laureen Nussbaum
Born in Germany in 1927, Laureen and her family left Nazi Germany for Amsterdam in 1936. In her new neighborhood, Laureen became friends with Margot and Anne Frank, although she was closer to Margot. After the Holocaust, Laureen remained close to Otto, Anne's father and the only surviving member of the Frank family. Laureen and her family were able to avoid deportation because they obtained paperwork claiming they were not Jewish. Laureen's book, Shedding our Stars: A Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine was published in 2019. Laureen moved to the United States in 1955 and later became a professor of Foreign Languages and Literature at Portland State University. She has consulted on many scholarly works, written articles and continues to lecture on the Holocaust, Anne Frank, and her own experiences. More about Laureen Nussbaum.
June 30, 2020 | Olympic Pride, American Prejudice with author and director, Deborah Riley Draper
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice tells the story of 18 African Americans who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Deborah Riley Draper is an award-winning and critically acclaimed filmmaker, motivational speaker, and advertising agency veteran. She directed the 2016 documentary "Olympic Pride, American Prejudice" (available on Amazon Prime) and in February 2020 released her book that expands on the stories in the film.
Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen black men and two black women are torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. If they go, they would represent a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete amid a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority that considered them inferior. Yet, if they stayed, would they ever have to chance to prove them wrong on a global stage?
Thank you to our community partners for this week's program: The Northwest African American Museum | The Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at Western Washington University | The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle | Temple De Hirsch Sinai | Jconnect Seattle | Temple B'nai Torah | Herzl-Ner Tamid | Temple Beth Am
June 23, 2020 | Barbara Adler West: Daughter of a Kindertransport Survivor
After her grandfather was arrested and imprisoned in Sachsenhausen in 1938, the family desperately looked for avenues to escape Germany. At only 9 years old, Barbara's father Steve was sent alone on the Kindertransport (children's transport) to England. Kindertransports were organized with British government sanction, giving refuge to approximately 10,000 mostly Jewish children from Nazi occupied countries. Barbara Adler West is an attorney, a mother, and recently started a non-profit organization to help folks in need with elder law. She is also the co-author, with her father Steve, of a 2017 book about families and aging, “When I Need Your Help I’ll Let You Know.” Barbara is very proud to share her father’s story as a Legacy Speaker in the Center’s Speakers Bureau.
Thank you to our Community Partner on this program Temple Beth Am.
June 16, 2020 | Race, Equity, and Holocaust Education
A conversation with three changemakers who are advocates of Holocaust education and who are working in Washington's school system to raise awareness of systemic racism and close the education and opportunity gap for students of color. |List of books and resources mentioned in this program
Panelists: Tanisha Brandon-Felder Ed.D, Director of Equity and Family Engagement, Shoreline School District | E-chieh Lin, Director of Diversity and Community and Director of Hiring, University Preparatory School | Angela Jones, CEO Washington STEM
Thank you to ParentMap Live and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center for partnering with us on this program!
June 9, 2020 | "Real Nazis of the Northwest - 1933-1941" with Knute Berger
Nazism in the Northwest is not a new phenomenon. You’ve heard of the heroic UW rowers called “the Boys in the Boat” who beat the Nazis at the Berlin Olympics. This talk will introduce you to another group Knute Berger calls the Fascists in the Forest. We will look at the pre-World War II era in Seattle and the major players in local and West Coast fascism, focusing on representatives of the Third Reich, their propaganda efforts here, and the activities of William Dudley Pelley who headquartered his 1936 presidential campaign in Washington State in his bid to become the “American Hitler.” The talk is based on a series of stories Knute Berger wrote while researching our region’s political past for Crosscut and for his KCTS9 video series, “Mossback’s Northwest.”
June 2, 2020 | Propaganda vs. News
We are bombarded with theories, opinions, and a rapidly changing news cycle. While we have exposure to more media now than ever, we are faced with many of the same challenges of previous generations - how to evaluate and think critically about the news and media we are consuming. What does it mean to be news-literate? John Silva, Director of Education at The News Literacy Project will share tips for being reliably informed. Holocaust Center for Humanity docents Marcy Bloom and Carl Shutoff will take a deep dive into a few examples of propaganda during the Holocaust that are part of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's collection.
May 26, 2020 | "Implications of COVID-19 for Atrocity Prevention" with Dr. James Waller
While COVID-19’s impact continues on a global scale – economically, socially, politically, and existentially – it will be particularly felt in deeply divided, fragile, conflict-prone, or at-risk societies. In such societies, it is absolutely vital that policy measures be taken for preventive action before risk escalates to the point of mass atrocity. This presentation will review some of those pressure points related to governance, economic conditions, and social fragmentation. The pandemic, and its potential to serve as a trigger for mass violence, makes our shared work of atrocity prevention more urgent than ever.
Dr. James Waller is Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College (NH). He also serves as Director of Academic Programs for the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, a leading international NGO in the field. He is the author of six books, most notably Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Atrocity (Oxford University Press, 2007). His newest book, due out later this year from Oxford University Press, is A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland.
Thank you to our community partners for this week's program: The Henry M. Jackson Foundation | The Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at Western Washington University | Washington State University History Department | Humanities Alliance at Everett Community College | Temple B'nai Torah | Temple De Hirsch Sinai | Temple Beth Shalom | Jconnect Seattle | Moishe House Seattle
May 19, 2020 | Michal Lotzkar: A Father's Siberian Exile
Michal Lotzkar, daughter of Polish Holocaust survivor Arieh Engelberg, who survived numerous labor camps before eventually finding refuge in Israel after the Holocaust, shares her family's story of survival, determination, and luck. Michal is a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.
May 12, 2020 | NAZI HUNTERS with author Neal Bascomb
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Adolf Eichmann, the head of operations for the Nazis’ Final Solution, walked into the mountains of Germany and vanished from view. Sixteen years later, an elite team of spies captured him at a bus stop in Argentina and smuggled him to Israel, resulting in one of the century’s most important trials, one that cemented the Holocaust in the public imagination. Author Neal Bascomb turns his investigative research into a captivating narrative in his award-winning books Hunting Eichmann and Nazi Hunters. Special thanks to our partner The Queen Anne Book Company for supporting this program.
May 5, 2020 | Clarice Wilsey: Letters from a Dachau Liberator
Clarice Wilsey, daughter of Army physician Captain David Wilsey, M.D. who was one of 27 doctors who entered Dachau concentration camp at liberation, shares her father's story. Clarice is a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.
April 28, 2020 | Betsy Touriel-Kapner: Rescue in Bolivia
Betsy Touriel-Kapner, the daughter of Austrian Holocaust survivors, tells the stories of her parents' escape from Austria to Bolivia. Betsy is a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.
April 21, 2020 | Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day
Special Memorial Program with Survivor George Elbaum and introduction by Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple De Hirsch Sinai and Dee Simon, the Baral Family Executive Director of the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
April 14, 2020 | Breeze Dahlberg: A Granddaughter's Story
Granddaughter of Hungarian Auschwitz survivor Vera Frank Federman, Breeze Dahlberg shares her grandmother's story. Breeze is a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.
April 7, 2020 | Naomi Newman: My Family's Resilience
The daughter of two survivors, Naomi Newman tells the stories of her parents from primary source documents and historical records. Naomi is a member is of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.
March 31, 2020 | Arik Cohen: Grandson of Four Holocaust Survivors
Arik Cohen is the grandson of four Holocaust survivors, shares their incredible stories of survival and luck. Arik is a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau.
Every other Wednesday from 1pm-2pm PT! Teachers can earn 1 clock hour on selected discussions.
Join engaging and highly interactive discussions of select popular Holocaust texts. Open to teachers, students, parents and anyone else.
Come prepared with questions and/or ideas you'd like to discuss, or just sit in and join the discussion.
Discussions are led by:
Paul Regelbrugge is the Professional Development and Curriculum Coordinator for the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Previously, following a career as an attorney in his native Detroit and Chicago, Paul taught for 14 years in Chicago, Buffalo, Spokane and, most recently, Kent. He is also the author of The Yellow Star House: The Remarkable Story of One Boy's Survival in a Protected House in Hungary (2019).
Kate Boris-Brown has been a supporter and volunteer at the Holocaust Center since 2015, assisting in the library and traveling with the Center to Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Israel. Books are her passion, especially books on the Holocaust, the refugee experience and Russian history. Her preferred vacation activity is scouting European bookstores for Holocaust and history publications. She has a B.A. in Literature, Graduate studies in Russian Language and post-retirement, earned UW Professional and Continuing Education Certificates in three writing programs: Nonfiction Writing, Literary Fiction I and II.
Register below and a link to join the discussion will be sent to you. Questions? Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Choice: Embrace the Impossible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger
Wednesday, July 22 | 1pm-2pm PT
Selected by Bill Gates as one of 5 favorite books for summer 2020. At the age of sixteen, Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele, forced Edie to dance for his amusement and her survival. Edie was pulled from a pile of corpses when the American troops liberated the camps in 1945.
Edie spent decades struggling with flashbacks and survivor’s guilt, determined to stay silent and hide from the past. Thirty-five years after the war ended, she returned to Auschwitz and was finally able to fully heal and forgive the one person she’d been unable to forgive—herself.
Edie weaves her remarkable personal journey with the moving stories of those she has helped heal. She explores how we can be imprisoned in our own minds and shows us how to find the key to freedom. The Choice is a life-changing book that will provide hope and comfort to generations of readers. Discussion led by Kate Boris-Brown.
REGISTER TO JOIN DISCUSSION ON "THE CHOICE"
Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany by Hans Massaquoi
Wednesday, August 5 | 1pm-2pm PT
In Destined to Witness, Hans Massaquoi has crafted a beautifully rendered memoir -- an astonishing true tale of how he came of age as a black child in Nazi Germany. The son of a prominent African and a German nurse, Hans remained behind with his mother when Hitler came to power, due to concerns about his fragile health, after his father returned to Liberia. Like other German boys, Hans went to school; like other German boys, he swiftly fell under the Fuhrer's spell. So he was crushed to learn that, as a black child, he was ineligible for the Hitler Youth. His path to a secondary education and an eventual profession was blocked. He now lived in fear that, at any moment, he might hear the Gestapo banging on the door -- or Allied bombs falling on his home. Ironic, moving, and deeply human, Massaquoi's account of this lonely struggle for survival brims with courage and intelligence. Discussion led by Paul Regelbrugge. Teachers can earn 1 clock hour.
Register to Join Discussion on "Destined to Witness"
July 16, 2020 | Sip & Learn Fundraiser for Young Adults | 6pm (PT) | Virtual Event
Presented by the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Ambassadors for Change. Grab your favorite beverage and join like-minded peers on Thursday, July 16 for our first ever young adult Sip & Learn Fundraiser. This virtual event will help build a more informed, resilient, and active young adult community.
Engage: Join us for an interactive learning opportunity on "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World" with UW Professor, Jevin West.
Collaborate: Bring your friends and your favorite beverage to a night of engagement.
Give Back: Raise critically needed funds in support of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau.
Thank you to our current Business Sponsors:
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture | Caffe Vita | Dick's Drive-in | Eltana Bagels | Homegrown | Seattle Cider Company
Learn more about becoming a Business Sponsor
Questions? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, July 29 | 12:00-1:00pm (PT) | With Christina Chavarria, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | 1 Clock Hour
Using lessons developed by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, participants examine the concept of racism and how it influenced Nazi racial antisemitism. Participants will learn about the broader history of antisemitism through Museum resources and gain access to lesson plans to address this history.
Christina Chavarría is a Program Coordinator in the Levine Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she has worked since December 2006. She holds a BA and MA in comparative literature from the University of Dallas. Her interests lie in Holocaust literature, engaging new audiences and partners, and studying and disseminating information on the impact and history of the Holocaust in the Ibero-American (Spain, Portugal, Latin America, US Latinx) world. Christina is currently running the Conference for Holocaust Education Centers, a program that builds cooperative relationships with Holocaust organizations in the United States. Previously, she ran the Museum’s Belfer National Conference, Holocaust Institute for Teacher Educators, and managed outreach projects for the Museum Teacher Fellows for six years. Previously, Christina served as Director of Education at Holocaust Museum Houston for six and a half years. Prior to that, she was a high school English teacher for nine years in El Paso,Texas, her city of birth.
Sunday, August 16, 2020 | 10:30am (PT) | Livestream via Zoom and Facebook | More Info & To Register
A commemorative recital by world-renowned Sephardic pianist Renan Koen presented from the historic Italian Synagogue of Istanbul. Program includes special greetings from the Chief Rabbi of Turkey (Hakham Bashi) Rabbi Ishak Haleva and a traditional "Hashkavah' memorial prayer for the Sephardic comunities of Greece and the Balkans destroyed in the Holocaust.
This annual event has, for 10 years, been held at the Congregation Ezra Bessaroth of Seattle. This year our memorial program, featuring Ms. Koen’s recital, will be presented virtually, allowing friends and communities from around the world to join us.
Co-sponsors: Congregation Ezra Bessaroth | Lela & Harley Franco | Holocaust Center for Humanity | Sephardic Studies Program | Stroum Center for Jewish Studies - University of Washington | Sephardic Bikur Holim | Seattle Sephardic Network | Kline Galland Community Based Services | Sephardic Brotherhood of America | Sephardic Educational Center
RESCHEDULED! Fact, Opinion, & Propaganda: Empowering Students to be Reliably Informed | Teacher Workshop | October 29, 2020 | 9:00am - 3:30pm | At the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity
Lunch provided. 6 Clock Hours. Registration Fee - $25.
Participants will:
- be able to differentiate types of misinformation
- understand how misinformation is created and spreads
- apply digital forensics and fact-checking tools and skills to verify information and debunk misinformation
- connect news literacy to civic engagement and recognizing the standards of quality journalism
- explore current trends in misinformation and conspiracy theories relating to Holocaust denial
Presented by John Silva, NBCT Director of Education for the News Literacy Project.
Funding for this program was made possible, in part, due to a grant from the Tillie and Alfred Shemanski Testamentary Trust.
RESCHEDULED! Fact, Opinion, and Propaganda: What does it mean to be news-literate? | Public Program | Thursday, October 29 | 6:30 - 8:30pm
With special guest speaker, John Silva, Director of Education, News Literacy Project. At the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Registration required. $10.
Participate in a lively discussion about what anyone can do to be more critical about how they engage with news and information. Topics to be discussed include:
- Propaganda and the Holocaust - with educator and presenter Branda Anderson
- What does it mean to be news-literate? 10 skills to be reliably informed - with guest speaker John Silva
"I believe very strongly this is the most hopeful place in the city." - Local Holocaust Survivor Steve Adler
Finding Light in the Darkness - Through stories and artifacts of Washington State Holocaust survivors, the museum’s exhibit engages visitors in this history and challenges them to consider how each person’s actions make a difference.
Visitors to the Holocaust Center can take a Virtual Reality tour of the Anne Frank annex, interact with embedded testimony screens that feature survivors and stories of coming to Seattle, explore artifacts that bring history to life, and learn about local students who are upstanders in their schools and communities.
TICKETS
Open Wednesdays and Sundays | 10am - 4pm
Group Tours & Field Trips by appointment every day except Saturday
At the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity | 2045 2nd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121
At the entrance to the Holocaust Center for Humanity are photos of children who experienced the Holocaust. All are survivors who later moved to the Seattle region, with the exception of one. Come visit and learn more about the stories. Photo by Alan Berner, Seattle Times staff photographer.
A bookcase opens to reveal a photograph of the stairs leading to Anne Frank's hiding place in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Explore this feature and learn more about Anne Frank when you visit the Holocaust Center. Photo by Alan Berner, Seattle Times staff photographer.
A memorial to the 6 million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust and the millions of other victims invites visitors to leave notes, prayers and wishes at the Holocaust Center. Photo by Alan Berner, Seattle Times staff photographer.
Train tracks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland at the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Designed by architects Olson Kundig. Photo by Stefanie Felix.
This exhibit was supported, in part, by 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax and The State of Washington.