Holocaust Survival and Resistance Symposium at Seattle Central
What: Two Holocaust survivors and the daughter of a major resistance figure will share their stories during “The Power of One: A Symposium on Resistance to the Holocaust.” The symposium highlights the power of one (one person, one family, one community) to affect change.
When: Thursday, May 10, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Media are invited to interview the three speakers on-site, 12:30 to 1 p.m. Students and instructors will also be available for interview on-site. Pierre Sauvage is available for radio and television on-air interviews.
Where: Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, corner of Broadway & Pine. Parking available in the college garage at the corner of Harvard & Pine.
Cost: Free of charge and open to the public
Who: Manli Ho is the daughter of the late Dr. Feng Shan Ho, who as Chinese Consul General in Vienna from 1938-40, issued exit visas to thousands of Jewish families so that they could leave Austria.
Peter Metzelaar was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1935. The Nazis seized his entire family, except for Peter and his mother, in 1942. Peter’s mother then contacted the Dutch Underground. Through the Underground, Klaas and Roefina Post put their own lives at risk to take Peter and his mother to live on their small farm in northern Holland.
Pierre Sauvage is a child survivor of the Holocaust and best known for his 1989 feature documentary “Weapons of the Spirit,” which tells the story of a mountain community in France that defied the Nazis and saved five thousand Jews, including Sauvage and his parents. Mr. Sauvage did not learn until he was 18 years old that he and his family were Jewish and escaped the Holocaust.
Background: “Opportunities for students to interact with survivors of the Holocaust are becoming extremely limited,” said Nada Oakley, a member of Seattle Central’s English faculty and co-organizer of the event. “It is imperative that we hear their voices and learn the lessons they share.”
Along with history professor Tracy Lai, Oakley co-teach the class “Holocaust: Memory and Meaning,” a Coordinated Studies Program (CSP) class at Seattle Central.
During a 10–week CSP class, students study a selected theme through a series of coordinated classes. In the “Holocaust” class, students study the Holocaust through various English, communications and history courses.
Upcoming speakers include: Stephen Adler, May 15, who as a child, was evacuated from Germany on a Kindertransport while the British government interned his parents. Leo Hymas, May 29, who at the age of 19, was part of the American military team that liberated the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in 1945.