Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 12:32PM Print Article In September of 2011, Justice Gabriel Bach, lead prosecutor in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, spoke in Omaha. His lecture will be aired in two parts during the noon forum on KIOS, Monday, April 30 and Tuesday, May 1.
For more information on Justice Bach’s visit, please click here.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 2:52PM Print Article On Sunday, April 15 at the Nebraska State Capitol Rotunda in Lincoln, local leaders and community members took part in the 2012 Nebraska State Holocaust Commemoration Ceremony. With about 200 people in attendance, newly appointed UNL professor of history, Gerald Steinacher, provided the key note. His address was a personal reflection – his story as a person of Viennese heritage who begins to learn about and ultimately teach and write about the Holocaust. Steinacher’s book, Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice, published by Oxford University Press, was recently selected as recipient of the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category.
For more on this story, please click here.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 1:00PM Print Article Recently the Omaha World-Herald ran a shortened version of an editorial regarding the failed Illionois congressional campaign of Arthur Jones. The following is the editorial in full.
With Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) fast approaching, we feel it is necessary to respond to the recent congressional campaign of Illinois candidate, Arthur Jones.
Denying the truth of the Holocaust is a wrenching insult to those who survived the atrocities, those who perished amidst the turmoil and those who gave their own lives to bring an end to the persecution of Jews, Roma, and millions of other individuals seen as unfit in World War II. Unfortunately, those who speak loudest and most ridiculously also help explain how the unfathomable truth of the Holocaust occurred in the first place and support the cause for renewed efforts to study history and what it can tell us about who we are today.
Arthur Jones was a 2012 Republican candidate seeking election to the U.S. House representing the 3rd Congressional District of Illinois. Jones was defeated by Richard Grabowski in the Republican primary on March 20, 2012.
“As far as I’m concerned, the Holocaust is nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews,” Jones said. “It’s the blackest lie in history. Millions of dollars are being made by Jews telling this tale of woe and misfortune in books, movies, plays and TV. The more survivors, the more lies that are told.”
Today, Holocaust deniers in foreign nations make some of us shake our heads in disbelief, but when such a person, in our own country where freedom and equality are treasured gifts, attempts to rise in power, we must do more than look on in numb disbelief.
The Nebraska Holocaust Educators Consortium would like to lend our support to those voters in the 3rd District who have spoken in favor of education over ignorance. We applaud you who join in the study and conversation of reason and compassion to make America a knowledgeable, understanding and accepting haven. One where our children are raised with a clear understanding of the past in order to reason through the present and to make a difference in the future.
When we study the Holocaust, we develop an understanding and awareness of the warning signs and factors that allow and even encourage violence in thoughts and actions culminating in genocide. Allowing deniers of the Holocaust to go unchallenged is the penultimate red flag being raised in a country where our grandfathers, fathers, service men and women fought and died for the cause of peace, justice, and the end to the insatiable hatred. We must not let revisionists succeed in trivializing or denying the atrocities that took place in Europe. Hatred and ignorance cannot win where Americans still believe in freedom and equality.
During the first week of March , over 3,500 Nebraska students and community members from Omaha and Lincoln - to rural communities across the state - heard survivors and their liberators give personal testimony of their eye witness accounts from the Holocaust. We will continue to provide these opportunities as long as possible as assurance to not silence the voices of those who were there. We encourage anyone who seeks truth to also seek opportunities to broaden their understanding so they can distinguish foolishness from Fact. Then, we can use the past to bring light to current issues.
-Members of the Nebraska Holocaust Education Consortium
Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 4:03PM Print Article 
Bea Karp (right), Holocaust survivor, answers audience questions following her presentation Wednesday morning at Wahoo High School. Around 450 students from across eastern Nebraska attended the event in Wahoo or via digital broadcast. (Chris Bristol, Fremont Tribune)
By Tammy Real-McKeighan/News Editor FremontTribune.com
She’s a small woman.
So when she spoke to students gathered at Wahoo High School, Bea Karp had to stand on a wooden platform to reach the podium.
But the tiny woman had a powerful story. A Holocaust survivor whose parents died in Auschwitz, Karp was a child when the Nazis took over Germany. She witnessed Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) in Germany, the suffering of a forced labor camp and the heartbreak of losing beloved family members.
Karp, who lives in Omaha, was one of two survivors, who along with two camp liberators, spoke Wednesday during Week of Understanding outreach activities sponsored by the Institute for Holocaust Education in Wahoo. Students from Wahoo and several area schools filled the school auditorium, while those from several other northeast Nebraska schools viewed presentations via satellite video.
For the rest of the story, click here.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 10:43AM Print Article By Julie Anderson
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
He usually has to lie down for a while afterward. In fact, it took him 30 years to talk about it at all, beyond explaining to the woman who would become his wife why he might not make a loving husband and father.
Still, he talks. It’s his passion. And it keeps the promise he made to a voice that spoke out of the darkness one night in a German concentration camp barracks and urged the younger prisoners to tell the world what happened there.
For the rest of the story, please click here.
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 11:39AM Print Article Monday, December 19, 2011 at 12 PM, KIOS will air the testimony of Robbie Waisman. Mr. Waisman is a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp and shared his testimony last April at the Durham Western Heritage Museum. Mr. Waisman will visit Omaha again in 2012 for the Week of Understanding - a project to provide survivor testimony to middle and high school students.
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 11:31AM Print Article On Thursday, December 1, 2011, the Institute for Holocaust Education hosted survivor of Rwandan genocide, Emmanuel Habimana, at the Jewish Community Center in Omaha. Many in attandance to hear Habimana’s testimony left with a deeper undertsanding of and connection to survivors of genocides.
Survivor of Rwandan Genocide, Emmanuel Habimana, speaks with Holocaust survivor, Bea Karp.
Emmanuel Habimana with Eadie Tsbari and Ellie Batt who were in attendance for Habimana’s testimony.
Habimana sharing his testimony.
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:56AM Print Article Adam Klinker/World-Herald News Service
This is the story Beatrice Karp shared with sixth-graders in Sara Wheeler’s class at Karen Western Elementary School in Ralston:
Growing up in the countryside near Karlsruhe, Germany, in the early and mid-1930s, her early childhood was normal, even idyllic, living with her parents, a younger sister, her grandmother and an uncle.
“Then, suddenly, I knew something was very wrong,” Karp said. “My uncle used to come home from the university and I could hear arguments about whether to leave Germany or not. My father would say he couldn’t believe anybody would do something like that to the Jewish people. He also said, ‘I am a German. My family has been living here since the 16th century.’”
More on this story …
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 10:34AM Print Article Becky McLaughlin and Erin DeHart, Nebraska Holocaust Education Consortium (NHEC) teachers, were each recognized in their districts as Outstanding Educators by the Nebraska State Council for the Social Studies (NSCSS).
McLaughlin teaches Social Studies at Lincoln High. This year she was appointed department head at Lincoln High. She has been a member of the Nebraska Holocaust Education Consortium since she arrived in Nebraska. Please see her web page for additional information. http://lhs.lps.org/profile.html?username=rmclaug2.
McLaughlin earned her B.A. in History from Roanoke College in Virginia and her MAED in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Tech. She is Nationally Board Certified and has been teaching high school social studies for the past nine years. Becky has been fortunate enough to participate in multiple Holocaust education workshops including two experiences as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Erin DeHart is on the faculty at York College and has instilled a passion for teaching social studies and language arts to hundreds of students. Erin has a special interest in integrating Holocaust education to her curriculum. She has participated in numerous university level seminars including the National Writing Project, seminar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Labor Committee trip to Poland and Israel. She has escorted numerous college students to Washington DC. Erin is presently working on her Ed.D at UNL. More information about Erin can be found on this link:
http://www.york.edu/academics/faculty/eed.asp. Erin is a member of the National Writing Project and the Nebraska Writing Project.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 10:28AM Print Article Beth Seldin Dotan, Director, Institute for Holocaust Education, is thrilled to honor Bob as Volunteer of the Year. “His time and devotion to Holocaust survivors in our community is immeasurable and we cannot thank Bob enough for the quiet and priceless service he provides on our Governance Council,” said Dotan. Cohen has served on the Institute’s Board for more than five years. He chaired 2007’s Kristallnacht event at the Joslyn Museum and the 2010 Yom Ha Shoah observance at Temple Israel. But, the hours of volunteer time devoted to the reparation needs of Omaha survivors is perhaps, his greatest gift. He has worked with Beit Tzedek Legal Services for Holocaust Survivors and connected Kutak-Rock offices outside Omaha to Beit Tzedek to further pro-bono legal assistance for local Holocaust survivors.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 12:19PM Print Article Lizzy Gilbert
Plains States Region/ADL
Justice Gabriel Bach spoke at Creighton University on September 22nd and at Kutak Rock Law Offices on September 23rd. His visit marked 50 years since the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel.
Justice Bach is widely known for his role as lead prosecutor in the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was one of the top-ranking Nazi officials responsible for the Holocaust. After living in hiding for years following World War II, Eichmann was captured in Argentina and brought to Israel to stand trial for war crimes.
Addressing Creighton law students and the community on Thursday evening at the Harper Center, Justice Bach then spoke to Omaha-area attorneys at the law firm of Kutak Rock on Friday afternoon. He described the legal considerations and challenges the prosecution faced in the Eichmann trial, including his capture, the location for the trial, and considerations of international law and the previous Nuremburg trials.
Recalling testimony of a Holocaust survivor whose family perished at a concentration camp from the trial, Bach asked this man to recount his experiences. “The man told me,” said Bach, “when we arrived at the camp, Nazi soldiers ordered us into a single-file line. They then sorted us into two lines. I later learned that the people they sent to the left, soldiers marched directly into the gas chambers. Those on the right, they packed into the barracks destined for the work units.”
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 12:28PM Print Article OMAHA, Neb. – The Creighton University School of Law International Law Lecture will mark the 50th anniversary of the trail of infamous Nazi Adolf Eichmann with a talk by Justice Gabriel Bach, Israeli Supreme Court (ret.), the prosecutor at the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, at 5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 22 in the auditorium of the Mike and Josie Harper Center at 602 N. 20th Street. Reception to follow.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Eichmann, one of the top-ranking Nazis responsible for the Holocaust was captured in 1960 in Buenos Aires by the Israeli Mossad as part of a covert operation. He was then transported to Israel to be prosecuted in Jerusalem as a war criminal. Justice Bach was appointed to the position of a senior prosecutor for the trial that began in the spring of 1961. He was the lead coordinator for the investigation of Eichmann’s crimes, acting as the legal advisor to the police bureau and preparing the case for trial. He served as one of three principal prosecutors during the trial of Eichmann – one of the most significant trials in the annals of criminal justice.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10:21AM Print Article On August 22, KIOS will air the testimony of Renee Firestone presented at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on March 2, 2011.
Renee Firestone is a Holocaust survivor and founding lecturer for the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Education Outreach Program in Los Angeles.
Firestone was 19 when she and her family were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. For more than three decades she has shared her testimony with students and others. Interviewed in 1994 she said, “The last words when someone was taken away were always ‘Remember us if you survive.’” She considers her survival as part of a mission to carry out those requests.
In March of 2011, Firestone visited Omaha to take part in A Week of Understanding, a joint effort of the Institute for Holocaust Education and Omaha Public Schools.
Ralston Recorder: Holocaust Survivor Speaks to Strudents - Mrs. Firestone’s visit to Ralston Middle School
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 12:23PM Print Article Visitors from throughout the United States, Canada and China recently spent a week in Omaha as the Institute for Holocaust Education hosted the Association of Holocaust Organizations 2011 Annual Conference. The theme of this year’s meeting was Staying the Course: Strengthening the Future.
The Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) was established in 1985 to serve as an international network of organizations and individuals for the advancement of Holocaust education, remembrance and research. A delegation from Harbin, China, including Mayor-elect, Mr. Piao, attended the beginning of the conference to introduce a new 60-panel art exhibit depicting the Jewish community of Harbin. Beginning in the early 1900s, Russian Jews settled in Harbin and for many years a thriving Jewish society existed there. The AHO Board accepted an invitation from the Chinese delegation to participate in a 2013 gathering in Harbin. Omaha City Council President, Thomas Mulligan, welcomed the Chinese delegation and the AHO members at the exhibit opening.
For more on this story, please click here.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 12:23PM Print Article Monday, May 23, 2011 at 12 PM, KIOS will air the November 22, 2010 lecture of Dr. Boaz Cohen: Child Survivors in the Aftermath of the Holocaust.
Dr. Cohen is the head of the Holocaust Studies Program of the Western Galilee College in Akko Israel.
He received his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and is a specialist in children’s memories/memoirs of the Holocaust and of how these accounts relate to our understanding of the Holocaust. He has published extensively in this area.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 11:37AM Print Article Approximately 350 people attended the 2011 Omaha community Holocaust Commemoration which took place on Wednesday, May 4 at Beth Israel Synagogue. Sixteen local survivors were present to light candles in memory of the six million Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Also in attendance was guest speaker and survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Robbie Waisman.
For more information on the evening, please click here.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 11:29AM Print Article 
Alan Potash, director of the Plains States Office of the Anti-Defamation League, right, presents the Couarge to Care award to Olta Gjoca, left. Gjoca received the award on behalf of her grandmother, Deshire Kumi-Veseli, an Albanian who helped save two Jewish families during the Holocaust. Gjoca is a 2006 graduate of RHS. Her grandmother still lives in Albania.
For Mr. Klinker’s story on Deshire Kumi Veseli, please click here.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 1:15PM Print Article 
While the update may be a bit belated, the baskets arrived right on time. The IHE delivered baskets of fruit in honor of the Passover season to 21 survivors and their family members.
For the Omaha World-Herald article, please click here.
Monday, May 2, 2011 at 2:24PM Print Article 
Holy Name student Angie Peterson, left, an eighth-grader, guest speaker Bea Karp and Kara Ramold, a Holy Name seventh-grader, met when Karp spoke at the school to conclude a lesson on the Holocaust.
Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 10:50AM Print Article Kitty Williams, Dr. Fred Kader and Lou Leviticus shared their testimonies with over 500 high school seniors from Grand Island on March 24, 2011.
The survivors told their stories and provided some advice. Williams said there’s only one thing she wants students to take away from their survival stories: “Don’t ever by prejudiced, because that’s where I think it all starts.”
Following an article about the event, one Grand Island student posted, “These are stories that every student in Nebraska should hear. Perhaps our school would have less problems with bullying if they could learn not to judge others.”
For the rest of the story, please check the following links from Grand Island’s local news sources:
