MELROSE PARK, Pa.—On Sunday, November 11, Gratz College will host its biennial Arnold and Esther Tuzman Memorial Holocaust Teach-In, a program aimed at providing an intensive learning experience for the community at large as well as tools for educators to teach the next generation about the Holocaust.
 
Sunday’s program, held on the 80^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, features a keynote address by Dr. Steven Luckert, senior program curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In his lecture, “Artifacts and Memories,” Dr. Luckert will explore the stories behind the artifacts displayed in the museum—like a wedding dress made from a German parachute and worn by several survivors at their weddings in a displaced persons camp in 1946.
 
“For most of history, museums have been about art or science or things that make people feel good,” said Dr. Paul Finkelman, president of Gratz College. “The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is all about educating people about things that are truly hard to think about.”
 
The program runs from 1:30 to 5:45 p.m., with a morning workshop exclusively for teachers presented by Randi Boyette, education director for the Anti-Defamation League. The afternoon features seminars on Polish concentration camps, hidden children and their protectors, rescue of the Danish Jews, Nazi propaganda, the Nuremberg Trials, and other topics.
 
“This is a chance for anyone to learn about the Holocaust from personal items,” Dr. Finkelman said. “It’s important to read about the Holocaust or see movies about it, but when you talk to someone who survived or touch an artifact, history becomes more real. There will not always be Holocaust survivors, but there will always be artifacts.”
 
The Teach-In is the first since Gratz launched its new Ph.D. program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies last year. The program director, Dr. Monika Rice, said the event presents attendees with the most current scholarship in the field.
 
“This allows teachers, lawyers, other professionals and the general public to become acquainted with some of the most important events, debates and issues within the field of Holocaust and genocide studies,” she said.
 
This program is made possible by the financial support of the Arnold and Esther Tuzman Holocaust Education Fund. Arnold and Esther Tuzman each fled their homes as teens to escape the Nazis. Esther was hidden by a Polish Catholic farmer. After imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp, Arnold served in the Polish-Russian army. Still in uniform after V-day, Arnold gave a ride to a beautiful young woman named Esther. They married in 1946 and immigrated to the US in 1947. The Tuzman family is proud to support The Arnold and Esther Tuzman Holocaust Memorial Holocaust Teach-In.