New Collection of Testimonies Opens in Texas
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
IN THIS ISSUE Rescuer Honored New Collection of 2 Educational Partnerships in the U.S. and U.K. Thanks to Staff Member Testimonies Opens in Texas 4 Testimonies in the Classroom Dan Danieli, a researcher in the Shoah Foundation’s A new collection of Shoah Foundation testimonies is 6 Foundation News Cataloguing Department, and his family are among the open to the public at the Holocaust Memorial of San SUMMER 2003 more than 2,000 Hungarian Jews who are alive today Antonio, Texas. This is the Shoah Foundation’s second 8 Development News thanks to the actions of Captain Laszlo Ocskay, a former public collection in the United States (the other is at the 12 Testimonies around the World officer in the Hungarian Army. Charleston County Public Library in Charleston, South 14 From the Archive Ocskay commanded a Budapest Labor Service Carolina). The collection consists of 20 testimonies Battalion during the war. Working against government videotaped in San Antonio and a copy of the Foundation’s policies, he issued official identification papers to his unit educational video, One Human Spirit. This collection of members, most of whom were victims of Nazi English-language testimonies is accompanied by Testimony persecution. Ocskay and his loyal staff obtained food and Catalogue binders that summarize biographical data about medicine for their unit of approximately 2,300 men, each interviewee. The Dalkowitz Foundation generously women, and children. provided funding for this special collection. The formal Dan Danieli made a promise to his father that he launch of the collection will be in autumn 2003, but would see Ocskay honored for his actions. Thanks to Dan’s visitors may view testimonies now. The Memorial will also efforts, Yad Vashem named Ocskay a Righteous Gentile on be creating a short video of testimony excerpts for an April 27, 2003. The Shoah Foundation’s archive contains educational exhibition. For more information, call the several interviews with people saved by Ocskay. Holocaust Memorial at 210-302-6807. Change Service Requested Service Change U.S.A. Los Angeles, CA 90078-3168 CA Angeles, Los Post Office Box 3168 Box Office Post Department NL-SU03 Department CONNECTING PERMIT NO. 1233 NO. PERMIT GLENDALE, CA GLENDALE, Students & Survivors U.S. POSTAGE PAID POSTAGE U.S. Shoah Foundation NONPROFIT ORG NONPROFIT Forms New Educational Partnerships (see pages 2-3) OPENING THE ARCHIVE FOUNDING CHAIRMAN Bringing Testimonies into the Classroom: Steven Spielberg HONORARY CHAIRS The Shoah Foundation Forges Strong Educational Partnerships in the U.S. and U.K. Edgar M. Bronfman Renée Crown Lew Wasserman in memoriam HET and Foundation Reach out to British Students Foundation and ADL Join Educational Forces FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS June Beallor The Shoah Foundation is establishing a new The Shoah Foundation and the Anti-Defamation by an increasing number of educators, the ADL’s James Moll partnership to introduce British students to visual history League (ADL) are partnering to develop a unique Braun Holocaust Institute developed a classroom-ready BOARD OF DIRECTORS testimonies. A new product, which will incorporate teaching tool that combines the Shoah Foundation’s curriculum that utilizes modern research and primary CHAIR testimonies from the Foundation’s archive, will be paired videotaped testimonies with the ADL’s printed Holocaust source materials such as diaries, photographs, art, and Susan Crown with the renowned educational programs of the curriculum to create a uniquely effective learning letters to teach about the Holocaust and link this Russel S. Bernard In pursuit of its Holocaust Educational Trust (HET). Since 1988, the HET experience for students in classrooms across the U.S. historical event to contemporary issues. According to Ed Gerald Breslauer has promoted awareness and understanding of Holocaust Distributed directly to teachers for classroom use, this S. Alster, Ed.D., former teacher and principal and ADL’s Stephen A. Cozen educational mission– Emanuel Gerard history and its universal implications by providing comprehensive educational package will consist of a full Education Director, “The Shoah Foundation’s visual Andrea Gordon to overcome Rachel Burns, Head of Education for the HET (second from left) teacher training and educational resources to schools, visits with Shoah Foundation staff (L to R) Sherry Bard, Associate written curriculum and an audio-visual component of testimonies and our curriculum guide are the perfect Douglas Greenberg Eric Greenberg prejudice, universities, and communities throughout the U.K. Director of Partnerships and International Programs, Douglas testimony segments that relate to each curriculum unit. combination. We know that the Foundation’s archive Greenberg, President and CEO, Kim Simon, Vice President for Alan Hassenfeld intolerance, and "One of the repeated requests we get is to have Partnerships and International Programs, and Kimberly Bonheim The treatment of the Holocaust in most history has testimonies that will enrich everything we’re David Kassie and Susan Harris survivors speak at schools. This project with the Shoah Birbrower, Director of Education textbooks is cursory. In order to meet the need expressed communicating with this curriculum.” Robert J. Katz bigotry through the Peter B. Kovler Foundation will give many more people the opportunity The ADL’s guide is a ten-unit high school curriculum William Lauder educational use to hear survivor stories," remarked HET's Head of that teaches about the Holocaust in the context of Skip Paul of its visual history Education Rachel Burns. "For us, survivors' stories are a diversity and anti-bias issues. The accompanying audio- Bruce Ramer A Los Angeles Initiative Serves as a Model for Future Work across the Country Harry Robinson testimonies– central teaching tool – to humanize the individuals visual component will supplement the written element Michael Rutman involved makes a potentially distant event of the past into This spring, the Shoah Foundation collaborated with the the crucial differences between dramatization and first- while representing Alex Spanos the Shoah Jerry Speyer something more immediate and compelling." The national education organization Facing History and person testimony and helped to answer some of the a new use of video David H. Strassler Foundation is Ourselves to implement a new educational program in questions that this material raises. After this workshop, project, scheduled to begin in 2004, pending funding, in the classroom– Casey Wasserman the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). This teachers took new ideas and new materials back to the building partnerships will fit into several required curriculum areas, including allowing students to Severin Wunderman cooperative program brought together LAUSD teachers classroom. history and citizenship. go directly to first with innovative and students, education experts, the Academy Award- PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER The Shoah Foundation and the HET will create winning film Schindler’s List, and testimonies from the After completing pre-viewing activities, students watched person testimony as Douglas Greenberg educational Schindler’s List, followed by discussions and an in-class Ed Alster (left), ADL's Director of teacher training materials, programmatic outreach, and Foundation’s archive. part of the lesson. viewing of In Their Own Words. The program concluded Education, at a training seminar with VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION high school students organizations in the classroom videos of survivor testimony for British high Expressly for this project, the Shoah Foundation created with a Town Hall Forum, where a panel (including The testimony Ari Zev schools. The project will integrate testimonies into In Their Own Words: From the Testimonies of ‘Schindler Founding Chairman Steven Spielberg and Foundation segments will be co-produced by the Shoah Foundation U.S. and abroad. VICE PRESIDENT FOR PARTNERSHIPS AND lessons that address four central themes. The first theme Jews’ – a 25-minute video program of testimony excerpts President and CEO Douglas Greenberg) addressed the and the ADL, with both organizations searching the INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS These partnerships from Jews who survived thanks to the actions of Oskar topic 'Why History Matters,' giving students and teachers Kim Simon is Choice, which includes topics like rescue, resistance, Shoah Foundation’s archive, viewing and selecting pool the unique Schindler. The video uses eyewitness testimony to the opportunity to interact with Holocaust survivors, ask escape, and collaboration. The second theme, Belief, will address six themes: Issues of Identity, Neighbor against questions, share reflections, and begin to examine how segments of testimony, and determining their appropriate VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT resources of each look at subjects such as propaganda, faith, trust, and Neighbor, Building a Racial State, Choices and Resistance, the study of history affects contemporary society. placement within each curriculum unit. Steven Klappholz tradition through survivor testimonies. Loss will be Holocaust, and Can One Person Make a Difference. institution, enabling The Shoah Foundation hopes to duplicate this program in The initial steps of drafting and testing the written portrayed through survivors’ memories of loss of identity, Facing History and Ourselves then used In Their Own other large cities in the U.S., relying on a network of curriculum are underway. Currently, the