Sylvia Schwartz and Robert Heffern will be introducing us to The Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo; What is it? Where is it? Why does it exist and how can it be of use to us? What resources are available through the center? They will discuss Teaching the Holocaust-Remembrance: Rationale, Issues, Methods and Resources. They will also address "Never Again" lessons for today.

Rockwell Hall Room 306
Finding Anne Frank in Rwanda
Drew Kahn, Theater, Directing/Acting
Eve Everrette, Buffalo State College Alum (Theater,2009)

Like genocide itself, Anne Frank has grown beyond a simple definition.  Through repetition, Genocide and Holocaust have become familiar words in our contemporary vernacular.  Similarly, the international popularity of Anne Frank has catapulted her beyond a young girl desperately wanting to be a young girl.  She has reached celebrity and fable status.  To deliver Anne's message to a contemporary college audience we chose to connect the more recent (but no less systematic) genocide of 1994 Rwanda. Rehearsal preparations, research, directorial vision, design concepts and production video will be used to share this rich educational approach to learning and teaching.

Rockwell Hall Room 302
Mind in a Bullet Proof Cage
Dr. Mark K.  Fulk

This presentation will examine Arendt’s memoir, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1964), on the trial as a construction of her own mind above and beyond the construction of Eichmann’s.  It will link this construction with contemporary examples of what is called “creative nonfiction” and relate it to her other biographies-as-memoirs, Rachel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman (1958) and Men in Dark Times (1968).  In examining these works through the lens of contemporary memoir, we discover an Arendt that, while tracing the minds of others during the worst genocide in Western history, finds herself staring back.

Donald Savage Theater Arts Building Flexible Seat Theater
The Memorial Series: How do we honor Individuals?
Alice C. Pennisi

Using the Renaissance idea of portraiture, with it’s jeweled colors and focus on the individual as a means to honor those whose identities are known from only one image of each-the photograph taken to document their arrests and subsequent executions by their own governments; Soviet and Cambodia).   

The viewers of this presentation will not only experience the individual as a human being, but will contemplate the situation he or she lived through, to not be ignorant of the politics involved.  In the process of destroying these individuals, their captors have left something so that they can be honored. Painting as a form of activism.

12:30-1:15:  Lunch 

1:30-2:30:  Workshop Session #2 

Rockwell Hall Room 305A
Be Here Now: Young Women’s War Diaries, and the Practice of Intentionality
Ralph L. Wahlstrom, Ph.D.

 The diary is more than the self absorbed Chronicle of a young girl's emotions that it is often portrayed to be on Saturday morning television. It is a coming to terms with the world, an "in the moment" act of intentionality that invokes an individual's power. Anne Frank, Dang Thuy Tram, Zlata Filipovic, and other girls and women have found, within the diary, a vehicle for expression, growth, rebellion and creation. In this session Dr. Wahlstrom discusses the diaries of several remarkable young women and proposes ways in which, through writing, we and our students might harness the power of intention toward nonviolent action. The session will include a brief workshop activity, which brings together the power of the diary and intentionality.

Rockwell Hall Room 306
Beyond the Diary: Behind the Scenes of a Jewish Family in Hiding
Sophia Veffer

Sophia will explore with you the less romantic aspects of life in Amsterdam during WWII.  She will discuss why it was that not every Jewish person went into hiding.  Why Anne Frank’s “story” was rather unusual.  What motivated Host Families (Rescuers) to hide Jews and what affect that had on their lives?  Sophia will also address what made Anne Frank’s Diary so special.

Rockwell Hall Romm 311
Sisters’ of Anne Frank: Three Women; One Legacy
Barbara D. Miller, Associate Professor of Spanish
Gunilla Theannder Kester, Ph.D., Amherst School of Music

We can never know Anne as a woman in her prime, but can see her ideals alive in others.  One ‘soul sister’ of Anne was Cantor Susan Wehle of Temple Beth Am, Williamsville, whose voice was stilled when flight 3407 went down over Clarence.  Though granted only half a life, like Anne, Susan lived her years joyously, originally and generously, an “artist as peace agent,” especially through interfaith and youth outreach.

This presentation also considers the long life and contributions of Dr. Fanni Bogdanow, a Holocaust survivor and member of Anne Frank’s generation.  Honored among the most renowned literary scholars of our time, she embodies “Survival and the Power of Testimony.” 

Rockwell Hall Room 302
Survival and the Power of Testimony: NEVER AGAIN
Carol Beckley, Theater, Set Design

Jewish Theater has played a significant role in the culture of the United States and Europe.  It has indeed been an avenue of exploration for issues of the Holocaust and genocide but also a path toward healing.  The JRT of WNY has offered its audiences a glimpse at history through many points of view and has opened discussions about our roles as citizens of the world.  Dr. Elkin will elaborate on the position Jewish Theater has as a vehicle for understanding cultural differences and bonds.

2:45-3:45:  Workshop Session #3 

Rockwell Hall Room 305A
Proposition 8, Mein Kampf, and the Diplomatic Strategies of Oppression
Anthony Chase, Ph.D.
Theater, Dramaturgy

4:00-5:30  Final Day Session 
Warren Enters Theater, Upton Hall

4:00-4:15 Voices and Faces

Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo WNY Arts and Writing Contest

Alexis Davis, Maryvale High School, 11^th Grade

Miss Davis will recite her award- winning poem. This moving piece was selected as Best in Show.

4:15-5:20 Voices and Faces 

Holocaust/Genocide Survivor Panel 

 Candle Lighting Ceremony 

All day events & exhibitions

Alissa de Wit-Paul, Interior Design Department of BSC and Professor of Lighting Design Shannon Schweitzer

“I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds.  The perfectly round spot on which we’re standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us…”

-          The Diary of Anne Frank: Monday evening, November 8, 1943

Genocide was promulgated in Anne Frank’s time through the leadership of a dictator using a specific group of people as scapegoat from economic hardship.  Today genocide is often blamed on “limited habitable space, little productivity of goods and a heavy human footprint,” says Rowan Wolf, Ph.D., Socialist.  He also claims that, “The environment is the straight line link between globalization and genocide.”

This presentation will be in the display area within the Upton hall gallery that shows ‘safe spots’ of light that pool on the ground.  They are surrounded by models, which display how a specific environmental issue, such as visible land scarcity, the reduction of fishing availability, and others, create or exacerbate contemporary genocide.  These models will congregate around and outside of spots of light as genocide isolates those trying to survive.  As Anne Frank said, they will be the impending danger that surrounds the spots of light.

UGANDA:Children & War
Errol Daniels, Social Documentary Photography

 Almost 2 million Ugandan citizens live in Internally Displaced Peoples Camps.  Villages burned while small children are forced to watch while their mothers and fathers are hacked to death with machetes.  Teenage boys are abducted and forced to be child-soldiers and kill.  Teenage girls are abducted and made to be wives to rebel commanders or traded to Sudanese arms dealers for guns.  Over 100,000 people are dead as a result of this carnage.  Tens of thousands of teenagers have been abducted.

 This has been going on for over 21 years in northern Uganda.  Originally, it was a political power struggle between Joseph Kony and Yoweri Museveni.  Kony lost power to Museveni and fled north to form a rebel army and begin a civil war.  Kony then turned on his own northern people and began to pillage, rape, murder and abduct. 

 Just imagine living in a village, leading a life where you had no luxuries, but there was community, animals for milk and meat, gardens full of vegetables.  Your children went to school.  Suddenly, your world is turned upside down in such a horrible way.  Imagine how afraid you would be.

 This exhibit consists of 15 portraits of teenagers currently living in Pader IDP Camp.  Four of the kids were abducted and then escaped after many months or years in captivity.  The other kids were forced out of their home villages when the rebels attacked.  Most are orphans living in abject poverty.  They permitted me to record their stories and they made drawings to illustrate their plight.

 The mission of this multi-media exhibit is to raise awareness about thousands of children affected by war in Northern Uganda.

Design Students explore Concepts of Genocide
Carol Townsend & Students of the Design Department BSC

Design students explore three-dimensionally the creative partnership formed by the incorporation of IDEA and MEANING by creating an allegory about genocide.  Each structure flows from a concept concerning man’s inhumanity to man based upon the student’s reading and research.  Each piece sets a mood or feeling.  Some tools used were scale, placement, and choice of materials.

Genocide in its many faces is represented, ranging from slaughter for Peruvian gold to contemporary military rape, and of course to Anne Frank’s experience.

6:00-9:00PM:  Evening Session

7:00-9:00PM "Lost Childhood;The Story of The Birkenau Boys, a film and discussion
Rich Newberg 

In July 1944 the Nazi "Angel of Death" Dr. Joseph Mengele, selected 89 Jewish boys to live as slave laborers at the Aushwitz-Birkenau death camp. Most of their loved ones were then sent to the gas chambers and crematoria.

Fifty years after that selection, the "Birkenau Boys," as they called themselves, returned to Auschwitz to confront the horrors of their childhood, and to honor the memories of their families.

After watching this Emmy Award winning documentary, you will understand the importance of never forgetting the lessons of the Holocaust.

Hands-on, Family Art Projects