January 9, 2001
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM UNDERTAKING FIRST PROGRAM EVER DESIGNED FOR EDUCATORS AT BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies is currently hosting 13 professors, representing schools that belong to the organization of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, for a one-week intensive course focused on improving the teaching of students about the Holocaust.
During the course, the professors who represent ten of the 62 colleges and universities that are members of the organization, will also learn about the Museum’s vast collection of archives; Nazi persecution of blacks; and the current threat of genocide in Sudan. The course will be led by Dr. Doris Bergen, Professor of History, Notre Dame University, and a specialist on teaching inter-racial studies. Renowned author and Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield, England - Ian Kershaw - will give a presentation about Hitler and The Final Solution.
“This program has been specially designed for faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities because of the importance of increasing the involvement of educators at these significant American institutions of higher learning,” says the Director, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Paul Shapiro. “We want to encourage more faculty members from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to take part in our various education programs.”
A list of course participants is attached.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which has hosted more than 15 million visitors since it opened in 1993, is the national institution for the documentation, study and interpretation of Holocaust history and serves as this country’s memorial to the millions of people who were murdered. The museum’s primary mission is to advance and disseminate knowledge about this unprecedented tragedy; to preserve the memory of those who suffered; and to encourage its visitors to reflect upon the moral questions raised by the events of the Holocaust as well as their own responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.
MEDIA ADVISORY
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will host two significant events in November. The first, on November 9, will be the screening of a film that tells of how, during the war, hundreds of Jewish children who fled to France were saved from being deported.
The second event, on November 15, is a media briefing about the Museum’s Committee on Conscience formally issuing a genocide warning for Sudan. A display will be opened about atrocities being carried out in the country, and later that evening, a public panel discussion will take place involving representatives from a number of organizations with first-hand knowledge of the situation.
WHAT:
Children of Chabannes
WHEN:
Thursday, November 9, 7.30 p.m.
The Museum and the Embassy of France will co-host a screening of the award-winning documentary chronicling how people from the tiny French village of Chabannes, and a Jewish children’s aid society, saved 400 Jewish children from deportation. The rescue operation was based in a refugee home run by the Oeuvre De Secours Aux Enfants, Children’s Aid Society (OSE), an 88-year-old Paris-based Jewish organization for health care and children’s welfare. The screening will be part of an OSE reunion taking place in Washington D.C. and organized at the initiative of the American Association of Friends and Alumni of OSE.
WHAT:
MEDIA BRIEFING
WHEN:
Wednesday November 15, 3.30 p.m.
Public Presentation 7.00 - 8.30 p.m.
The Museum’s Chair of the Committee on Conscience, Jerome J. Shestack, will lead a briefing session to explain why the Committee has issued a genocide warning for Sudan - Africa’s largest country. Joining Mr. Shestack will be William O. Lowrey, who will moderate the public panel discussion; Roger Winter, Executive Director, U.S. Committee for Refugees who will attend the panel discussion and be represented at the briefing; Jemera Rone, Counsel, Human Rights Watch; and Lomale Simeon Mwonga, Chancellor, Episcopalian Diocese of Khartoum. A special display addressing the issues in Sudan will be formally opened and there will be opportunities for interviews. The public panel discussion on the subject will take place later in the evening.
WHERE:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, D.C.
