MIDWEST CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION FREE FILM SERIES MAKING CHANGES FOR HUMANITY THROUGH E DUCATION SEE PAGE 8 FALL/WINTER | 2015/2016 MCHE Completes Web Access to Survivor Archive Over the last two years, MCHE • In addition to online holdings, full-length, staff has worked to preserve audio and original versions of the video testimonies videotaped testimonies of local Holocaust are available for onsite viewing by survivors and to make them accessible researchers and other patrons. to the public on the MCHE website. “Creating an online archive not only These testimonies cover the geographic serves our mission locally and regionally range of European Jewish experiences in the but also allows us to reach students Holocaust as well as a variety of circumstances, and classroom teachers nationally and including forced labor, hiding, death camps internationally,” said Jessica Rockhold, and emigration in the 1930s. MCHE director of education. “We know This collection, now fully available at that students and teachers utilize these www.mchekc/survivors, includes testimonies in their classroom studies, • 40 condensed versions of video and we hope to become a destination for testimonies gathered in 1994 during researchers as well. An added benefit is that MCHE’s Witness to the Holocaust project our website provides families of survivors (transcripts will be available in 2016) with access to these personal histories no • 49 audio interviews conducted as part • 73 individual survivor profiles, complete matter where they are in the world.” of MCHE’s Portrait 2000 exhibit, as well with supplemental resources to enhance For an onsite viewing appointment, as transcripts of the interviews, which understanding of each survivor’s please contact Shelly Cline at 913-327-8194 focus on pre- and postwar experiences unique experience or [email protected]. MCHE Library and Archive Reopens for Business! It has been an exciting summer at MCHE’s Holocaust Library and Archive, formerly known as the Resource Center! Thanks to a major reorganization led by librarian Ronda Hassig, also librarian at Harmony Middle School, and assisted by student volunteer Imire Goller, patrons no longer need to know the author’s last name in order to find a resource on a particular topic. Instead, books are arranged according to the Library of Congress classification system, one of the most widely used systems in the world today and the one found in most academic libraries. The Library of Congress • Library Hours: 8:30 a.m.– 5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday or divides all knowledge into 21 classes and sub-divides them from there. on Wednesdays until 7:00 p.m. by appointment (email [email protected]). Posters displaying the most often studied Holocaust topics will lead visitors to a variety of sub-themes, resulting in a search that turns • Over 3,000 titles are available for free loan. up not only one, but several resources on a desired topic. This will be • BARGAIN WEEK – NOVEMBER 16-20 especially helpful for contestants in the White Rose Student Essay Shop from our full inventory of sale items during regular office Contest, as well as for graduate students and academics. hours or make an appointment for Wednesday evening. MCHE | 913-327-8190 | [email protected] | mchekc.org 1 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Raising the Bar: MCHE Strives to JEAN ZELDIN Satisfy a Thirst for Knowledge For those in the education field, • In addition to our relationships with Labor Day is our New Year’s Eve. Though the National Archives at Kansas City THERE IS STILL A GREAT THIRST no ball drops in Times Square, the start of and the National World War I Museum FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE a new academic year is a time for reflection and Memorial, MCHE has developed and new resolve, a time to assess past program partnerships with other non- HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST accomplishments and to set new goals, profits, including the Negro Leagues AND ITS SEEMINGLY LIMITLESS inevitably raising our internal bar of Baseball Museum, UMKC, Rockhurst RAMIFICATIONS. expectations to meet those of our University, Avila University, Kansas City constituents. Art Institute, and both the Truman and Within the span of 14 months, from Eisenhower Libraries. Pay It Forward June 2014 through August of this year, • MCHE hosts an academic roundtable What you also may not know is the MCHE partnered with the National Archives of regional university faculty and importance of our annual members. Last (NARA) at Kansas City on two major administers a new consortium that offers year, membership gifts accounted for nearly traveling exhibitions—State of Deception: an interdisciplinary graduate Certificate 38% of MCHE’s unrestricted revenue, The Power of Nazi Propaganda and Discovery in Holocaust Studies (see page 4). which is critical to keeping our doors and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage— • The Jack Mandelbaum Holocaust open and retaining quality professionals to and offered 12 free speaker programs in Speakers Bureau features children of manage programs and general operations. cooperation with NARA and the National survivors who tell their parents’ stories If you are among the tens of thousands World War I Museum and Memorial. and share their own perspectives. who have attended our programs, visited Generous funding from local foundations Last year, this free program reached a our website, borrowed materials from our and trusts coupled with enthusiastic total of nearly 5,000 students and adults. Library and Archive or benefited simply reception by the general public tells us that, • The Isak Federman Holocaust Teaching by reading our newsletter, please consider despite decades of distance from these events Cadre has been going strong for over becoming an annual member or renewing and questions of relevance that arise from 20 years and serves as a model for a lapsed membership. Think about MCHE time to time, there is still a great thirst for similar programs in other states. when the time comes to remember a special information about the history of the Holocaust • Since 2000, MCHE has been recognized occasion or to honor the memory of a friend and its seemingly limitless ramifications. by the Jewish Foundation for the or loved one. We will be delighted to add Righteous in New York as a Center your name to those of other members in our Little Known Facts of Excellence. spring newsletter and to recognize you as an In this newsletter, you will read • MCHE is an active member of the annual donor next fall. about the many ways in which MCHE Association of Holocaust Organizations, Please make your gift by using the is addressing this ongoing quest for for which I serve as treasurer of the envelope between pages 6 and 7 or visiting knowledge. What you may not know are board of directors. Through the AHO, mchekc.org. Join with hundreds of other the following “little known facts” about we have connected with many speakers MCHE donors listed there in helping us the many ways in which MCHE serves the and learned about exhibitions we then raise the bar even higher. By paying it educational needs of our community. share with our community. forward, you too can make a difference. Shelly Cline, Ph.D Ronda Hassig Dana Smith Public Historian Evening Resource Assistant Accounting Manager MCHE (913) 327-8194 (913) 327-8192 (913) 327-8192 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] STAFF [email protected] Kathy Coenen Jessica Rockhold Jean Zeldin Administrative Assistant Director of Education Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer (913) 327-8192 (913) 327-8195 (913) 327-8191, [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Newsletter Editor | Trudi Galblum • Art Director | Janelle Smith 2 MCHE | 913-327-8190 | [email protected] | mchekc.org FACEBOOK facebook.com/MidwestCenterforHolocaustEducation PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The Courage to JOYCE HESS Share Their Stories Photo Credit: James Maidhof AS PRESENTED AT MCHE’S 2015 ANNUAL MEETING Photography I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, She was liberated from Bergen-Belsen a sister, a friend, an accountant, an concentration camp in April 1945. Now THEIR VISION OF THE WORLD American, a Jew and a child of a Holocaust she would add “survivor” to her identity CHANGED AFTER LISTENING survivor. These characteristics make up my and begin the struggles of starting a new TO HER EXPERIENCES. identity. My identity is not much different life without any extended family other from others in this community except than her sister. She immigrated to Chicago for the last characteristic, being a child in 1947, obtained her high school diploma, for my social studies class. She came, she of a survivor. My daughters, Kate and worked in the payroll department at Hart, spoke and she continued speaking right up Alex, have a distinct identity by being Shaffner and Marx, married my father, to her death in 2007. Whenever she spoke grandchildren of a survivor. David Golad, a World War II veteran, to students, you could hear a pin drop. moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and started Their vision of the world changed after her life as an American—surrounded listening to her experiences. by Americans and living the American dream. She expanded her identity to Responsibility Is Ours include American citizen and mother, with We often hear that time heals all pain, the birth of my sister, Esther, of blessed and it is true that time is a great healer. memory. So now her identity seemed But my mother’s pain was not healed. She complete—a wife, mother, U.S. citizen and, was deeply scarred by her life’s experiences yes, Holocaust survivor. during the Holocaust. Her conscience would not let her forget and neither will mine. Discussion Begins So the responsibility to inform the The Holocaust was not a topic discussed next generation is ours, the children and in our home.