2015 Conference Schedule
Wednesday, March 4
Facing History 101: A Workshop for Educators (preregistration required)
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Designed and led by Fran Sterling, Senior Research and Development Associate for Facing History and Ourselves, this session will explain and engage selected key issues related to effective education about the Holocaust.
Xavier Hall, Room 201
Screening of 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus
7:00 p.m.
This Emmy-nominated film chronicles the courageous and intricate work of Eleanor and Gilbert Kraus, an American couple whose commitment to saving Jewish children led them to make a dangerous trip to the heart of Nazi Germany in 1939.
Convener: Kirsten Christensen, Associate Professor of German Language & Literature
Karen Hille Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Post-film Discussion with Steven Pressman, director/producer/writer
8:15 p.m.
Thursday, March 5
Registration and Coffee
9:00 a.m.
Anderson University Center (AUC) Lobby
Rescuing Refugee Children: 50 Children and Beyond
10:00 a.m. – 11:40 a.m.
Hindsight makes the U.S. immigration policies of the 1930s and 1940s look particularly cruel, as so many European Jewish refugees were denied visas. This panel will address the role of humanitarianism in times of violent global crises by exploring the range of prejudices, laws, and economic factors that made it so hard to rescue refugee children 70-80 years ago.
Panelists:
Steven Pressman, director/producer/writer of 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus
Liz Perle, writer and granddaughter of Eleanor & Gilbert Kraus
Paul Shapiro, Director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Loren Steinbrecher, son of Kurt Steinbrecher, one of the children rescued by Eleanor & Gilbert Kraus
Maria Chávez, Associate Professor of Political Science, PLU (author of Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth)
Convener: Beth Kraig, Professor of History and Director of the Holocaust & Genocide Studies Minor, PLU
The Regency Room (Anderson University Center)
Box Lunches may be pre-purchased online
11:45 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
On and Off Campus Dining Options
Pick up lunches and dining in AUC 133 (AUC)
Documenting Rescue: Children and Their Rescuers in Nazi- occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia
12:30 p.m. – 1:35 p.m.
Scholars present and discuss research addressing complex and distinctive questions regarding opportunities and efforts made to rescue Jewish children in eastern European nations.
Jennifer Marlow, Michigan State University, “Uncovering Life in Hiding: Polish Jewish Children and their Gentile Nannies”
Laura Brade, ’08 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Retracing the Kinderaktion: How 669 Children Escaped Nazi-occupied Prague”
Convener: Christopher Browning, Emeritus Frank Graham Porter Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Scandinavian Cultural Center, AUC
The Cat in Terezin’s Brundibar: Ela Weissberger’s Story
1:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Fifteen thousand children passed through Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp, but only a hundred survived. Among that small group was Ela Stein Weissberger, 11 years old when she was imprisoned in Terezin. She will describes her experiences, including her 55 performances in Brundibar, a children’s opera staged in the camp and exploited by Nazi propagandists.
Ela Stein Weissberger, child survivor of Terezin and performer in Brundibar
Convener: Mina Miller, Artistic Director of Music of Remembrance
The Chris Knutzen Room (Anderson University Center)
The Current Crisis: The Dehumanization of Refugee Children in the U.S.
3:45p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
In 2014, thousands of children made the dangerous trek from Central America to the U.S., traveling without adult family members and facing violence, exploitation, and sexual assault. How was their plight described in various U.S. commentaries and why were these children not welcomed as refugees? This panel discussion will explore that question and others through historical, legal, and personal perspectives.
Panelists:
Norma Linda Ureña, family law attorney
Robin Jacobson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Puget Sound
Angie Jimenez, ’14
Wendy Martinez, ’14
Convener: Maria Chávez, Associate Professor of Political Science, PLU (author of Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth)
The Regency Room (Anderson University Center)
Lemkin Lecture: In Their Own Words: The World of the Child during the Holocaust
7:00 p.m.
Using sources created by children during the Holocaust, the 2015 Lemkin Lecturer will discuss the ways in which they coped and contended with the challenges, fears, violence, and losses that pervaded their world during the years of Nazi oppression and murder.
Patricia Heberer-Rice, Mandel Institute, U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum Author of Children During the Holocaust
Convener: Robert Ericksen, Emeritus Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies, PLU
The Regency Room (Anderson University Center)
Weep No More: Music for the Children in Hebrew, Yiddish and English
9:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
PLU Women’s Chorus and Young Women’s Chorus, Steilacoom School District Directed by Lauren Whitham
The Chris Knutzen Room (Anderson University Center)
Friday, March 6
I’m Still Here: Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust
9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Using selections from the documentary I’m Still Here, based on Alexandra Zapruder’s book Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries from the Holocaust, this session will introduce the stories of selected children and youth who recorded their thoughts and observations during the Holocaust.
Fran Sterling, Senior Research and Development Associate for Facing History and Ourselves
Co-conveners: Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education at the Holocaust Center for Humanity, Seattle, and Rona Kaufman, Chair and Associate Professor of English, PLU
Open to audience members of all ages and backgrounds.
Olson Gymnasium
Remembrance & Reflection
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
“Schlaf Mein Kind” by Allan E. Naplan, performed by PLU Women’s Choir, directed by Lauren Whitham
“The Last Butterfly” (based on the poem, “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” written by a child at Terezin), performed by Cantor Leah Elstein of Temple Beth El
Comments from Rabbi Bruce Kadden, Temple Beth El (Tacoma)
Olson Gymnasium
Literature of Witness: Young Writers from the Holocaust
11:15 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Fran Sterling and PLU student discussion hosts will lead a series of text-centered dialogues about children’s writings from the Holocaust; what questions arise as we read these stories and think about the fate of children facing oppression, violence, and death?
Co-conveners: Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education at the Holocaust Center for Humanity, Seattle, and Rona Kaufman, Chair and Associate Professor of English, PLU
Open to audience members of all ages and backgrounds.
Olson Gymnasium
Lessons and Commitments: What Can Your Generation Do?
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Selected speakers, including current high school and college students, explain their reasons for studying the Holocaust and listening to the voices of children who lived during the Holocaust.
Convener: Frank Kline, Dean of the PLU School of Education and Kinesiology
Opening comments from Thomas Krise, President of Pacific Lutheran University
Kia Addison, Spanaway Lake High School
Allan Chernoff, Journalist and author of The Tailors of Tomaszow, co-written with his mother Rena Margulies Chernoff
Marina Phal, ’16, Sociology major and Women’s & Gender Studies minor
Natalie Mayer, mother, community activist, promoter of Holocaust education, philanthropist and volunteer
Box lunches may be pre-purchased online
On and Off Campus Dining Options
Olson Gymnasium
On Losing Your Children Twice: Survivor Parents and Their Refugee Children
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Tens of thousands of Jewish parents sent their children abroad in an attempt to save them from Nazi persecution. Only a minority of the parents survived to see their children again. What happened in the lucky families that were reunited? Drawing on her own family correspondence, Professor Heineman will discuss the difficult path to reestablishing family ties.
Elizabeth Heineman, Professor and Chair Department of History, University of Iowa
Convener: Lisa Marcus, Associate Professor of English
Scandinavian Cultural Center, AUC
Closing Reception – All are Welcome
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Comments from Paul Shapiro, Director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Scandinavian Cultural Center, AUC