Upcoming Events
Wednesday, September 25 | 11:30am - 1:30pm | At the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity
Join us as we welcome Seattle Rep for a special excerpt reading from Indecent, followed by a conversation with Dr. Lisa Marcus, Professor of English and Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Pacific Lutheran University.
Following its recent success on Broadway, the critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning play, Indecent, comes to Seattle Rep. Indecent features an ensemble of actors and musicians who bring to life one of the most engrossing scandals in theater history.
A powerful drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, Indecent charts the true story of a controversial 1906 play, Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance. Indecent is a love story about the power of art to provide solace and light through the darkness.
Cost: $10. Free for museum members! (Not a member yet? Become a member!)
Reservations are required. Bring your own lunch. Coffee and cookies will be served.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019 | 11:45am - 1:15pm | At the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity
Celebrating the launch of "Shedding Our Stars: The Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine" by Laureen Nussbaum, local Holocaust survivor and scholar. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, 1940 to 1945, all Jews were ordered to register the religion of their grandparents. The Reichskommissar appointed the young lawyer Hans Calmeyer to adjudicate “doubtful cases.” Calmeyer used his assignment to save at least 3,700 Jews from deportation and death, dwarfing the number saved by Schindler’s famous rescue operation.
Laureen Nussbaum―née Hannelore Klein―owes her life to this brave German official. In Shedding Our Stars, she tells how Calmeyer declared her mother non-Jewish and deleted her and her family from the deportation lists, saving them from death. She goes on to interweave his story with her family‘s tale of survival, as well as with that of her boyfriend and, later, husband, Rudi Nussbaum. Since in Amsterdam the Kleins were close to the Franks, Anne Frank and her family also figure in book. Going beyond the liberation of the Netherlands to follow both Calmeyer’s and the author’s story to the end of their lives, Shedding Our Stars is a story of courage in the darkest of times, and of the resilience of the human spirit.
Books will be for sale and the author will be signing them at the event.
Cost: $10. Free for museum members! (Not a member yet? Become a member!)
Reservations are required. Bring your own lunch. Coffee and cookies will be served.
Monday, October 7, 2019 | 4:30 - 7:30pm | At the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity | Flyer
With Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle, Kurt Mayer Endowed Chair in Holocaust Studies at Pacific Lutheran University and Rosemary Conroy, teacher at St. Luke School, Shoreline.
$20 registration | Dinner provided
Participants will:
- Gain practical lessons to implement in the classroom
- Understand the role of the Catholic church during the Holocaust and how this history affects Catholic teaching today
- Discuss and workshop barriers and challenges to teaching the Holocaust
- Explore the Holocaust Center for Humanity's exhibit, "Finding Light in the Darkness"
- Become familiar with available local resources including teaching trunks, scheduling a speaker, arranging a field trip, and more
Questions? Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Director of Education
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 | 9:00am - 3:30pm | 6 Clock Hours Available
At the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity | Guest Presenter: Sheryl Ochayon, Program Director, Echoes & Reflections, at Yad Vashem
Echoes and Reflections prepares teachers to teach the complex history of the Holocaust in a way that stimulates engagement, critical thinking, and personal understanding among students. This comprehensive program delivers professional development and a rich array of interactive resources for middle and high school teachers.
Topics to be discussed include antisemitism, and the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Participants will have the opportunity to tour the Holocaust Center, learn about field trip opportunities, and gain access to resources including the Echoes and Reflections multi-media curriculum.
$25 Registration Fee | 6 Clock Hours Available | Register Now
We are in this together. Find out what you can do. Offered by the Holocaust Center for Humanity in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League to confront growing antisemitism and intolerance.
The course examines connections between historic and contemporary antisemitism and addresses current events. This interactive, discussion-based program engages participants and provides practical tools for responding to antisemitism and hate in our society.
"Confronting Antisemitism and Intolerance" is a single 3-hour course.
Location: Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity, Seattle
Free | Registration Required (no walk-ins) | Dinner provided | Space is limited | Participants commit to attending for the duration of the class | 3 clock hours are available for teachers
Classes run from 4:30pm - 7:30pm at the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
- Thursday, October 24, 2019
Questions? Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Funding for Confronting Antisemitism and Intolerance: A Program for the Community was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
"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
Please note that the Holocaust Center will be closed to visitors on the following Wednesdays:
August 7, 2019
October 9, 2019 in observance of Yom Kippur
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.
Everything is Illuminated
September 11 - October 6, 2019 10:30 AM - 12 PM | Book-It Theater: 305 Harrison St. Seattle, WA 98109 | By Jonathan Safran Foer, Adapted & Directed by Josh Aeseng.
Jonathan treks to Ukraine to uncover the truth of a family legend-what happened to the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis? With the help of Alex, his less-than-fluent translator, and Alex's grandfather, Jonathan's journey leads him back in time and deep into his own imagination. The trio squabbles and struggles to understand each other and where they're headed, but their quixotic search brings a vision of the past to vibrant, terrible, charming life before our eyes.
Details and Tickets
A House in Scheveningen: Harriet’s Journey to the United States
September 17, 2019 10:30 AM - 12 PM | Stroum Jewish Community Center Auditorium: 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040 | Co-sponsored by Endless Opportunities, Holocaust Center for Humanity, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the UW, and the SJCC.
Join us as local author and activist, Harriet Mendels, a member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau, takes us back to May of 1939 and her journey from Holland to Hoboken, NJ. Through slides and stories we will learn about her life as a non-English speaking child in America and how Harriet’s family - her parents, brother, and two aunts - escaped the Netherlands exactly one year before the German invasion.
Free and open to the public, RSVP required: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (206) 693-3046.
Katja Petrowskaja: A Family Story Between Memory and Forgetting
Monday, October 7, 2019 | 6:00 - 7:30pm | University of Washington, CMU 120
Writer Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree to chart her relatives who had scattered across multiple countries and continents, living through (and in some cases dying in) the 20th century's many calamities, including Stalinism and the Holocaust. But how do you talk about what you can’t know, and how do you bring the past to life? In this conversation with Sasha Senderovich (Assistant Professor, UW Slavic and Jewish Studies), Petrowskaja will reflect on a fragmented and traumatized century, while sharing stories of her travels to Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, and the United States and bringing to light family figures who otherwise may have drifted into obscurity. Maybe Esther is a poignant, haunting investigation of the effects of history on one family as well as a deeply affecting exploration of memory.
Free and open to UW faculty, students, staff, and the wider public. More info | RSVP
Peter Metzelaar: Hidden Holocaust Survivor
October 10, 2019 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Senior Center of West Seattle: 4217 SW Oregon St. Seattle, WA 98116 | Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Center
Join us as Holocaust Survivor Pete Metzelaar shares his story of living with his mother in hiding for two and a half years while being sheltered by the Dutch Underground. Pete's story will be followed by a question and answer period.
Free and open to the public, RSVP required: (206) 932-4044 x1 or stop by the Senior Center front desk.
More info: Facebook Event
A Historic Evening with Eva Schloss, Stepsister of Anne Frank
November 5, 2019 7:00 PM | Husky Union Building at University of Washington, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle
Join the University of Washington's Chabad student group for an opportunity to hear the story of noted speaker and author, Eva Schloss, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor and stepsister of Anne Frank. Eva will be joined on stage by University of Washington President, Ana Mari Cauce, who will lead the conversation. Eva will be traveling here from London to provide a face-to-face encounter with someone who represents fortitude, positivity, courage against all odds, and many more values that are priceless in today's society. Purchase Tickets | More info: Facebook Event
