Tuesday, December 1 | Building Bridges: Latinx Representation in a Holocaust Museum

With Dr. Michelle Tovar, Associate Director of Education-Latino Initiatives at Holocaust Museum Houston. For many communities, a Holocaust museum represents a rare space to discuss hatred, prejudice, and apathy openly. In the last few years, Holocaust Museum Houston has created an opportunity to amplify diverse voices and narratives that are not commonly recognized. In this presentation, Dr. Michelle Tovar will discuss the significance of Latinx representation in Holocaust museums and how the work she has done has helped shape programming, exhibits, and cross-cultural engagement. 

Dr. Michelle Tovar is responsible for building bridges between the Latino community and the Holocaust Museum Houston. Her initiatives include outreach to bilingual/dual language school programs; creating educational workshops and events for teachers, parents, and community leaders; and working with local and national organizations dedicated to serving Latinos. Michelle earned her EdD at the University of Houston in Curriculum and Instruction in K-12 Social Education with an emphasis on Social Justice Education. She was a Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Fellow and a 2017 and 2019 Fulbright-Hays Scholar. 

12:00-1:00pm (PT). A Zoom link will be provided upon registration. 

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Thank you to our community partners on this program:

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UPCOMING LUNCH-AND-LEARNS - EVERY TUESDAY

12:00 - 1:00pm (Pacific Time) Every Tuesday.  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. 

These programs aim to present perspectives and voices that challenge and inspire people to confront bigotry, racism, and indifference, and to consider how their actions make a difference. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed in these programs are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of the Holocaust Center for Humanity and its employees.  

SEE PAST PROGRAMS

Tuesday, December 8 
Hidden in Hungary: The Survival Story of Agi Day

“My mother, my sister, my grandmother were hidden in a convent, dressed as nuns... I was too young to be in the convent, so I was hidden with a Catholic family, a couple [with] no children. They pretended I was a cousin from the countryside." - Agi Day

Agi Day was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia on May 13, 1940. When the Nazis invaded that country in 1941, she and her family fled, walking 196 miles to Budapest, Hungary. Agi’s mother convinced a local priest to hide Agi, age 4, her sister, age 16, herself and her mother in the priest’s apartment. Later, her family was hidden in a convent, but Agi, too young for the convent, was sent to live with two different Catholic families who passed her off as their cousin from the countryside. Agi was not reunited with her family until after liberation, May 1, 1945. With no home to return to, Agi, her mother, and sister, resided in a Displaced Persons Camp in Bad Gastein, Austria. Agi immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1951 and later to the Seattle area. Agi is a member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau.

12:00-1:00pm (PT). A Zoom link will be provided upon registration. 

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Tuesday, December 15
The S.S. Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life Of A Nazi with author Daniel Lee, in conversation with journalist Knute Berger

During a dinner party in Florence a few years ago, Daniel Lee was told a very strange story; a guest recounted how her mother had recently taken an armchair to an upholsterer in Amsterdam. While repairing the chair, the upholsterer found a bundle of swastika-covered documents inside the chair’s cushion. The papers belonged to Dr. Robert Griesinger, a lawyer from Stuttgart, who joined the S.S. and worked at the Reich’s Ministry of Economics and Labour in Occupied Prague during the war. An expert in the history of the Holocaust, Lee was fascinated to know what part Griesinger had played in the Third Reich and how his most precious documents ended up hidden inside a chair, hundreds of miles from Prague and Stuttgart. The SS Officer's Armchair is a detective story and a reconsideration of daily life in the Third Reich. 

Daniel Lee is a senior lecturer in modern history at Queen Mary, University of London. A specialist in the history of Jews in France and North Africa during the Second World War, he completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford, and is also the author of Pétain's Jewish Children. As a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker, Lee is a regular broadcaster on radio. He lives in north London. 

Knute Berger's journalism has exposed much of the Northwest's local history and has been featured in numerous publications.  He is currently the editor at large for Crosscut, and has previously served as editor for Seattle Weekly and Seattle Magazine. He is the host of Mossback’s Northwest on KCTS and PBS which features dozens of short 5 minute videos uncovering facts about our local infrastructure, culture, and history.

When you purchase a copy of The SS Officer's Armchair through AmazonSmile, a percentage of your purchase will be donated to the Holocaust Center for Humanity. 

12:00-1:00pm (PT). A Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

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SEE PAST PROGRAMS!

Member Eligibility and Commitment:

• Open to young adults in Washington State, aged 25-40, of all backgrounds
• 15 members (7 new) will be accepted for a one-year commitment, with the opportunity to renew. The 2021 cohort will include eight 2020 cohort members.
• $150 (or more) personal contribution for participation. If cost is a barrier, please contact us! We do not want to turn anyone away due to financial need.
• Members must attend at least two Holocaust Center events as an ambassador, in addition to Ambassador-led events.
• Meetings will occur virtually on Zoom each month, beginning Feb. 2021. There will also be four optional social engagement events throughout the year (two virtual, two socially-distanced).

Benefits for Cohort Members

• Museum membership
• Opportunity to plan and execute two Holocaust Center events: Sip & Learn Fundraiser in July 2021, and an educational event for the young adult community in October 2021
• Invites to exclusive events (donor receptions, members-only events, etc.)
• Opportunities to create communications content: contribute to social media, be featured in newsletters
• Recognition on Holocaust Center's website and in Annual Report

2020 Cohort Members:

• Aprilynn An
• Claire Bruncke
• Sami Dubow
• Michelle Federman
• Bevin Fritz-Waters
• Max Gun
• Ty Hansen
• Taryn Harris
• Stephanie Lammers
• Josh Maduell
• Amanda Privitt

Have any questions? Please contact 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..

Funding for Ambassadors for Change was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

Teacher Workshop | Thursday, December 3, 2020 | 3:30pm-4:30pm (PT) on Zoom | 1 Clock Hour. Free. 

Participants will receive teaching resources and best practices for teaching the Holocaust both online and in the classroom, as well as lessons and resources regarding the theme of resistance. The Defiant Requiem is the story of a group of Jewish prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp who used music to defy their oppressors, find courage, and sustain hope. Against the odds, the prisoners learned to sing Giuseppe Verdi’s "Requiem" in the original Latin.  

Presented by Branda Anderson and Paul Regelbrugge. 

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Branda Anderson is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and a graduate of the University of Washington with a Masters in Teaching.  In 2013, she completed a Masters in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Gratz College.  Branda has been a World History/Social Studies teacher at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, Washington for seventeen years, and has participated in and presented at multiple Holocaust Center for Humanity (Seattle) teacher trainings. In 2011, she participated in the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers Program traveling to Washington DC, Israel, Germany and Poland.  Branda is an Alfred Lerner Fellow, a Powell Fellow, a Defiant Requiem Teacher Ambassador, and USHMM Teacher Fellow and Mentor.

Paul Regelbrugge is the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Professional Development and Curriculum Coordinator. He is a former attorney, former teacher in Chicago, Buffalo, Spokane and Kent, a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow, a Powell Teacher Fellow and Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Alfred Lerner Teaching Fellow, and author of The Yellow Star House.

The Weaver's Scar: For Our Rwanda with author Brian Crawford 

Wednesday, December 9 | 4:00-5:00pm (PT) 

Join us for a conversation with local author and teacher Brian Crawford to discuss his book aimed at young adults, The Weaver's Scar.  The Weaver's Scar is a young adult novel of a Rwandan boy who manages to escape the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis and make it to America. It is a story that is both horrific and inspiring. Faustin is a normal schoolboy growing up and very good at running and soccer. But dark secrets of the past hang over his family, and his father disapproves of his friends and his football games. Things only start to make sense when the teachers at school begin to emphasize the division between the Tutsis and Hutus, a division that even makes its way to the soccer field. As the terrible events of the genocide unfold, Faustin discovers what caused his father’s disability, experiences the cruelty of his schoolteachers, and sees first-hand the horror of neighbor turning against neighbor. With his family slain, his only chance of survival lies in his running and sheer courage.

In his more than 20 years as a teacher, Brian Crawford has taught numerous works related to the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide. He has written extensively on both subjects (7 books and a curriculum guide), and he created a middle school cultural exchange between his former school and a secondary school in Nyamata, Rwanda. He has taken four student groups to Rwanda, and is working on developing a program for high schoolers who will travel to Rwanda to receive training in restorative justice. Brian currently teaches at a private school in Seattle.

Discussion led by Kate Boris-Brown, a connoisseur of books and history.

Purchase a copy of the book in paperback or as an ebook (through Apple Books) HERE. A teacher's guide is also available. Don't have time to read the book? Or maybe your copy won't arrive in time? Read a sample and join the discussion with the author. 

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Choices Matter: Complicity and Action During the Holocaust

Thursday, January 21, 2021 | 3:30-5:30pm (PT) | 2 Clock Hours Available | Free

Presented by Melissa Mott, Echoes & Reflections

An examination of the range of choices and decisions made by individuals, communities and nations during the Holocaust is a powerful lens through which to study this period of history. This approach encourages deep critical thinking and analysis, and also serves as a catalyst to compel students to work toward making change in their own lives and the larger society. This learning opportunity examines the consequences of inaction and highlights the courage and difficult choices of those who rescued and resisted during the Holocaust. Educators will gain the tools to support students to implement an action-oriented project influenced by the lessons of this history, as well as how these lessons and more may be adapted to remote instruction.

Melissa Mott is the Deputy Project Director at Echoes & Reflections. A high school and college educator, Melissa taught English as a Teach For America Corps Member in Newark, NJ, while earning her M.F.A. in Writing from Rutgers University in 2015 and her Ed.M. in Comparative Education and Human Rights at Columbia University Teachers College in 2017. As a Fulbright Scholar in Poland, Melissa taught English at The University of Warsaw while researching genocide education and human rights.

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Words, Writers, and SouthWest Stories: Peter Metzelaar, Hidden Child of the Holocaust

Date: December 10, 2020 | 6:00pm | Hosted by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society on Zoom

Cost: FREE | Learn more and register here

"Words, Writers & SouthWest Stories," a historically-based speaker series of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, is honored to host Peter Metzelaar for a live Zoom presentation on Thursday, December 10 at 6:00 PM. Metzelaar will deliver a presentation entitled, “Hidden Child of the Holocaust.” Registration is required. 

Using Children’s and YA Literature to teach the Holocaust

Date: January 18, 2021 | 10:00-11:30am | 2 PDUs available   
Offered by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education  

Cost: FREE | Click here to register

With an abundance of literature to choose from, teaching about the Holocaust, and its lessons can be overwhelming. In Using Children’s and YA Literature to teach the Holocaust, Dr. Sarah Minslow will share a variety of books that are appropriate for teaching about this history in elementary school and suggestions for how to engage in meaningful conversations with students. After her presentation, educators will have the opportunity to discuss how they might bring this learning into their classroom during small group breakout rooms. The session will conclude with time for questions and answers in the full group. The session will assist teachers in addressing SB664 (Oregon’s Holocaust and Genocide K-12 education mandate). 

Dr. Sarah Minslow is an Assistant Professor of Children’s & Young Adult Literature at California State University, Los Angeles. She received her PhD in English with a specialization in Children’s and YA Literature from the University of Newcastle. She has been teaching children’s literature, media, and culture at the university level since 2008 and developed two courses after attending the USHMM’s Silberman Seminar in 2012: War & Genocide in Children’s Literature and Refugees in Literature & Film. She has worked with multiple educator groups across the country to develop a curriculum for Holocaust and genocide studies and human rights education using children’s literature. She is a member of the Teaching Brief Editorial Board for the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Phoenix Picturebook Award committee for the Children’s Literature Association. Out soon is her co-edited book Denial: The Final Stage of Genocide?