Holocaust Education Resources Council Newsletter December 2016
Board of Directors Dear HERC Friends,
John Rosner Our best wishes to all for a healthy, peaceful and As you are making your end of year donations, PRESIDENT prosperous 2017. As I look back to the please consider giving to Holocaust Education beginning, so much progress has been made to Resource Council. Donate to keep Holocaust Rita Blank memory alive and educate new generations. Your VICE PRESIDENT reach more schools. Our mission of education has never been more important than now. I want contribution will make an immediate and direct Tasha Weinstein to thank the HERC board members and impact. SECRETARY committees that work tirelessly during the whole year to plan all the important programs. Please According to the news, anti-Semitism is on the rise David Kirk in alarming ways. The US Holocaust Memorial TREASURER attend the events next year and learn more about Museum recently released a statement as a call to making a difference. Don’t forget to send you action. In our community, a KKK message was left Monte Finkelstein renewal membership in January. You can pay by on a community building near a high school. Help HERC EDUCATION PayPal or a check. DIRECTOR stop the hate. http://www.holocaustresources.org/join-herc/
“One Person of Integrity Can Make a Difference”, This past year started with the Anne Frank At-Large Members Elie Wiesel. exhibit at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. The Linda Davey opening night reception reached one of the Eileen Lerner Robyn Rachin highest attendance recorded. The book club and Shari Gewanter film series continued to show great interest. Barbara Goldstein Michelle Gayle Annual teacher workshops are the main focus for Executive Director Mary Ann Deitchman educators, which 75 attended. Ending the year Avi Wygodski with the Remembrance Dinner Gala when 275 Daniela Wellner attended to honor Susan Turner with the Humanitarian Award and Pam Marsh presented about stolen Nazi art recovered.
Inside this Edition... Message from the President ...... 2 HERC Book Club ...... 7 Remembrance Dinner ...... 2-3 Poland Trip Brochure ...... 8-9 Calendar of Upcoming Events ...... 4 I Saw It In the Movies! ...... 10-11 USHMM Press Release ...... 5 Searching for Identity ...... 12 Requiem of Defiance ...... 6 Membership ...... 13-15
H E RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O.Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee Message from John Rosner, HERC President
I would like to wish you all sweet and pleasant upcoming holida ys. As the year’s end approaches, I am cognizant of ongoing challenges for the next year. HERC will be expanding programs within schools to search for di verse ways to educate students. HERC will continue to provide meaningful and thought‐provoking educationa l events to our teachers regarding the holocaust. Teachers will then convey this critical information to our students to ensure that the horrific events of the 1930’s and 1940’s are never again repeated. Likewise, HERC will partner with local organizations to sponsor events such as the Requiem of Defiance. HERC will be searching for ways to expand our membership and su pport. It is thanks to folks like yourselves that we can go in providing the necessary educational information to our students. Sincerely, John Rosner HERC President
2016 Holocaust Memorial Dinner
HERC Presents Honors at Annual Remembrance Dinner
As the Holocaust Education Resource Council moves into new partnerships and expanded programs, honors were given to two special individuals at the Annual Remembrance Dinner last month. These two hardworking community members are helping to make a difference in their own way. The record crowd of 275 people attended to recognize Susan Turner as the First Humanitarian recipient and Pam Marsh as the Guest Speaker presenting reclaiming Nazi Stolen Art. The event held at the Turnbull Center was filled with many guests that dined on food beyond average for this kind of event. The room had a display of two Teacher Trunks that demonstrated the key education resources provided by HERC to the schools throughout the year. The mission is so important, that funds were raised that night to purchase more trunks that schools can share. They both continue their long-standing commitment to stand for justice in any way possible. Susan Turner said, “I am honored, humbled and thrilled at this wonderful award from our HERC organization, which perseveres in education against hatred, injustice and cruelty.”
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2016 Holocaust Memorial Dinner
Left: Susan Turner honored. Steve and Susan Turner, Barbara Goldstein, Rita Blank
Right: Guest Speaker Pam Marsh presenting art stolen by the Nazis
Left: Memorial Candle Lighting
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HOLOCAUST EDUCATION RESOURCE COUNCIL ANNUAL MEETING JANUARY 11, 2017, Tuesday TIME: 6:30PM LOCATION: TEMPLE ISRAEL, 2215 Mahan Drive ALL MEMBERS INVITED BOARD of DIRECTORS ELECTIONS 2017 BUDGET PROPOSED PROGRAMS ANNOUNCED
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Official Release from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
November 21, 2016
Museum Condemns Hateful Rhetoric at White Nationalist Conference; Calls on the Nation to Confront Hate Speech
WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is deeply alarmed at the hateful rhetoric at a conference of white nationalists held on November 19 at the Ronald Reagan Building just blocks from the Museum.
According to press reports, Richard Spencer, the leader of the National Policy Institute – a white nationalist think tank – that sponsored the conference, made several direct and indirect references to Jews and other minorities, often alluding to Nazism. He spoke in German to quote Nazi propaganda and refer to the mainstream media. He implied that the media was protecting Jewish interests and said, “One wonders if these people are people at all?” He said that America belongs to white people. His statement that white people face a choice of “conquer or die” closely echoes Adolf Hitler’s view of Jews and that history is a racial struggle for survival.
The targeting of Jews was central to Nazi racist ideology. The Germans attempted to kill every Jewish man, woman and child they could find. Nazi racism extended to other groups. By the end of World War II, the Germans and their collaborators had murdered six million Jews and millions of other innocent civilians, many of whom were targeted for racial reasons.
The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words. The Museum calls on all American citizens, our religious and civic leaders, and the leadership of all branches of the government to confront racist thinking and divisive hateful speech.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a living memorial to the Holocaust, inspires citizens and leaders to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by donors nationwide. Learn more at ushmm.org.
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2016/2017 HERC Book Club
Holocaust Education Resource Council 2016/2017 Book Club
Date Book & Author Time Venue No discussion group XXX XXX XXX in December 1/19/2017 Legacy of Courage: A 7:00 PM‐ Leon County Public Library Holocaust Survival Story in 8:30 PM 200 W Park Ave Greece Program Room B by Frederic Kapis (850) 606‐2665 2/16/2017 Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir 7:00 PM‐ Leon County Public Library of the WW II Jewish Ghetto 8:30 PM 200 W Park Ave by Ernest G. Heppner Program Room B (850) 606‐2665 3/16/2017 The Seventh Million: Israelis 7:00 PM‐ Leon County Public Library and the Holocaust 8:30 PM 200 W Park Ave by Tom S. Segev Program Room B (850) 606‐2665
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I SAW IT IN THE MOVIES!
The HERC movie series, I SAW IT IN THE MOVIES, will continue in 2017. For the past two years, we have been exploring the movies produced by American movie houses in the U.S. (Warner Brothers, United Artists, Columbia, etc.) in the years just prior to and during WWII. We have seen that American audiences of the “social media” of the day – the movies – knew about the discriminatory policies of the Nazis, the denial of free speech and religion, and the existence of brutal concentration camps inside Germany. We have become aware of Nazi spy activities in America, the labeling of “degenerate” art, and the take‐over of the minds of the youth of Germany ‐ boys being trained to be soldiers for their “savior”, Hitler, and girls to be breeders of soldiers. We saw Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 parody of “The Great Dictator” and heard his impassioned plea for the brotherhood of man.
In 2017, we will continue to explore what has become quite obvious – that what Americans knew about the policy and actions of the Nazis was quite extensive. Our first film is WATCH ON THE RHINE, starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas. Released by Warner Brothers in 1943, the movie was based on a stirring play by the famous writer Lillian Hellman and adapted for the screen by Dashiell Hammett. Its success on the NYC stage was echoed on the screen; Paul Lucas both won the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Actor. He plays a German anti‐Nazi underground leader who has been fighting and hiding in Europe and has brought his American wife and their children to security in America. The complacency of Americans regarding the barbaric nature of the conflict spreading across Europe plays a role in the story as Lucas’ identity is discovered and he and his family must make a sacrificial choice. Determination, idealism, dignity and strength are portrayed passionately by Lucas and Davis. WATCH ON THE RHINE will be seen on January 26, 2017.
On February 23, THE SEVENTH CROSS will be presented. This 1944 MGM film is set in 1936 when the primary purpose of German concentration camps was to incarcerate political opponents of the Nazi state. It is based on a novel by Anna Seghers. In the film, Spencer Tracy plays an escapee who sees the six men who broke out with him recaptured and hung on crosses to die. As he keeps one step ahead of pursuing Nazis, he feels the terror of an animal being ruthlessly hunted. Dread, suspicion, and anxiety are his companions. However, his faith in mankind is restored by the perilous actions of his friends who help him. SEVENTH CROSS is one of the best known of wartime concentration camp escape movies. We are showing this movie just days before the FSU exhibit, “Cinema Judaica” will open at the FSU Fine Arts Museum. This film, as well as seven others we have seen in our series, will be featured in the exhibit.
On March 23, we will divert a bit from our theme of what America knew in the 1940’s. The Tallahassee Symphony orchestra will be presenting Verdi’s “Defiant Requiem” on March 25. Our film series will show the 2012 documentary with the same title, portraying the memorial concert which told the story of how musician inmates of the concentration camp Terezin, conducted by composer Rafael Schachter, used the power of Verdi’s music to maintain their dignity and fight back by playing and singing to the Nazis what they dared not say to them. This is a little known story of incredible defiance, using music as the vehicle. If you are able to hear the symphony on March 25, seeing this film will provide you with a profound appreciation for the meaning of the title, “Defiant Requiem.”
The final film of the 2017 series, THE MOON IS DOWN, is based on a 1942 John Steinbeck novel, which told a story of the Nazi occupation of a resource rich village in Norway. While the Nazis expected capitulation, the townspeople, led by their dignified, compassionate mayor, resist and experience brutal retaliation. It is a story of people whose will and nobility cannot be broken by violence. It also depicts a conflict of ideologies and is a philosophical indictment of the Nazi “new order”. Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Henry Travers (you might recognize him as Clarence in its A WONDERFUL LIFE) lead the cast. Twentieth Century Fox released THE MOON IS DOWN in 1943.
ALL FOUR FILMS WILL BE SHOWN ‐ AT NO CHARGE ‐ AT ALL SAINTS THEATRE 918 ½ RAILROAD AVENUE AT 7:00 ON THE DATES SHOWN
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Searching for Identity: Voices of the Second Gen
Searching for Identity: Voices of the Second Gen, Readings of Second Generation Holocaust Survivors, took place at the Wilson Center for the Performing Arts at the Florida State College of Jacksonville on Nov. 13 and 14, presented by Jacksonville’s Jewish Family and Community Services. The multi-media program explored the experiences of children who grew up with the weight of Holocaust woven into childhood and adulthood as expressed through Jacksonville Second Gen survivors.
After the Second World War, the three million Holocaust survivors remaining had to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives as displaced and stateless persons. The war did not end when the concentration camps' gates were forced open. What happened to these prisoners and hidden souls as they eventually became immigrants in foreign lands with unknown futures? They had to start again. Some never recovered. Some married. Some had children. These are the second generation.
Searching for Identity: Voices of the Second Gen program was inspired by the writings of second generation Holocaust survivors who worked together for two years in monthly writing workshops lead by author Stacey Goldring. Stacey felt strongly that the writings needed to be shared outside the workshop setting in order for the public to understand that the Holocaust’s collateral effects reverberate across generational boundaries.
The program was incredibly well received by the community, survivors and their families as well as educators, clergy, students, social work, mental and health professionals.
The Searching for Identity: Second Gen Writers Workshops are designed for those individuals whose parents survived the failed Nazi’s Final Solution. It is open to survivors, as well. No participant is ever required to write.
Other projects included in the work of SFI includes: Searching for Identity: Through the Lens of the Second Gen, Jan. 31-Feb. 12 at the Cummer Museum Art and Gardens in Jacksonville. The installation features second generation essays and student sculptures, portraiture by photographer Chad Dennis and programming. Searching for Identity, documentary film, that focuses on the second generation Holocaust survivor experience.
For more information on these programs, contact Stacey Goldring at [email protected].
SFI projects are produced in wonderful partnerships with:
Anne Frank, An Exhibit for Today annefrankjax.com Chad Dennis Photography chaddennisphoto.com Conner & Company connerandcompany.com FSCJ wilson‐[email protected]
Florida Department of Education Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education flholocausteducationtaskforce.org
Jewish Family & Community Services jfcsjax.org
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2016 HERC MEMBERSHIP
David and Barbara Abrams Michelle Y. Gayle Nigel Allen Elizabeth George Donald Axelrad Shari Gewanter Susan Baldino Mitchell and Jacque Gilberg Meg Baldwin Linda Gilleon Sandy Ballas Steve Goldberg Brian and Carol Berkowitz Stacey Goldring (in memory of Rachel Capelouto) Ron and Barbara Goldstein Bill Berlow Shimon and Nechama Gottshalk Bruce and Karen Bickley Bill Graham and Shelley Hill Libby Bigham Richard and Leigh Ann Greenberg Martha Billings Susanne Griffin Felix and Rita Blank Kara Gross Phil and Rita Blank Sue Gross Byron and Pam Block Bill Gwynn Joe and Sue Boyd Susan Haddix David and Liz Brady Kathleen Hamption Dr. Logan and Maryanne Brooks Gina Harris Fran and Nancy Buhler Paul Harvill Raymond and Wendy Capelouto Tom and Dot Hayward Tonya Chavis Jeff Helicher Thomas and Margaret Clark William Herrell Judge Robert and Karen Cohen Jerry and Roberta Hill Caroline Collins Sol Hirsch Michael Conn Lori Holcomb Art and Elaine Cooper Madelon Horwich Arnold Cooperman Richard and Linda Hyson Bill and Stephanie Corry Robin Johnston Martha Cunningham Wendy Johnston Karen Culpepper Louise Kahn Linda Davey Janet Kaplan Paul and MaryAnn Deitchman Kamila Kavka Doreen DuMond Patrick Kaye Mark Easterling Sandra Kendall Shelia Erstling Dr. Howard Kessler and Anne Van Meter Brian and Libby Fairhurst Paula Kiger Lisa Finkelstein and Jim Hruska Sam and Jessica Kimelman Monte Finkelstein Lynda Kinard Joan Fowinkle Beth Kinnon Stephan and Marcia Fregger David Kirk and April Wetherington Steve Friedlander Kraft Nissan Daniel and Linda Fuchs Davia Kramer Ann Gabor and Jay Payne Joel and Betty Kramer H E Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O.Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 13 RC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee 2016 HERC MEMBERSHIP - continued Dr. Herbert and Judy Rubin Kim Koutnik Eleanore Rosenberg David and Debra Lachter Cherie Rowland Dr. Sam and Judy Lamb Ruby Diamond Foundation Dian Latour Lesley Sacher Eileen Lerner Ron Sachs David and Cathy Levenson Dr. Ron and Tere Saff Wayne Logan Diane R Salz Gabriella Mackee Joanne Sapolsky Daniel Maier-Katkin Paula Saunders David and Mona Markell Ron and Jane Schagrin Julie Matherly Martin and Sue Schneiderman Joanna Mauer Mark and Missy Shamis Martin and Marion Merzer Jerry Shapiro Jim and Laurye Messer Mimi Shaw (In memory of Dick Arnold) Steve and Val Mindlin Judge J. Layne and Cynthia S Smith Paul Mitchell Leslie Smith Duncan and MaryAnn Moore Dena Sokolow Jonathon and Eli Moore Larry and Beverly Sokolow Richard and Jamie Morris Mary Spector Diane Neidhart Alvin and Susan Stauber Jerome and Jaoanna Novey Nat Stern Eva Pelt Gerry and Susan Sternstein David Pepper Charles and Susan Stratton Brooks and Almena Pettit Jackie Stubbs Earle and Virginia Perkins Tallahassee Jewish Federation Jorge and Betty Piekarewicz Jan and Joanne Tanenbaum Colin and Anne Phipps Allison Tant Corinne Porcher Marjorie Turnbull Sandy and Melinda Proctor Steve and Susan Turner David and Jill Quadagno Steve Uhlfelder James and Martha Quinn Barry and Tiffanie Webster Robyn Rachin Brian and Tasha Weinstein Radey Law Firm Aria and Daniela Wellner DeeDee Rasmussen Bruce and Wendy Wiener Kathy Reeves Jodi Wilkof Robert and Linda Reiser Palmer Williams Steve and Amy Reznik Steve and Judy Winn Howard and Kenya Rich Jim and Jolene Wolf Marty and Jan Roberts Avi and Alexandra Wygodski David and Barbara Rosen Ken and Janice Zimmerman Myrnalee Rosinsky Gary Yordon John and Monica Rosner Peggy Youngblood
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HERC Membership Form
Name:
Address:
Home phone: Cell phone: Email:
I am interested to help on one or more committee:
Book Club Holocaust Remembrance Film Series Community Outreach Memorial Membership Teacher Workshop
MEMBERSHIP ENABLES YOU TO: • Attend programs, films, and scholars’ lectures – at reduced rates or no charge • Receive notice of ongoing programs and invitations to special events • Borrow from our extensive collection of books, media, research files, and curricula on Holocaust • Affirm your personal commitment to our mission and help us reach our goal
HERC is making a difference in our community, but we cannot continue to do so without your support. We urge you to join us at whatever membership level is most comfortable for you.
HERC OFFERS VARIOUS LEVELS OF MEMBERSHIP: Please select a membership level.
$36 (Life) This membership level purchases a DVD, book, or periodical for our school resources
$100 (Peace) This membership level provides a scholarship for a student outreach program
$250 (Courage) This membership level buys a set of books for a school classroom
$500 (Remembrance) This membership level helps to sponsor a speaker for Professional Learning Opportunities.
PLEASE SEND CHECKS TO: Holocaust Education Resource Council P.O. Box 16282 Tallahassee, FL. 32317 Donations can be submitted by PayPal on HERC website www.holocaustresources.org
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