Richelle Budd Caplan

Yizkor 5784

Yizkor has always been a prayer shrouded with emotion, drama and superstition for me. Older generations, including my parents, shooed us away as Yizkor was about to begin – fearful that we would be tainted from the sadness in the room or that our very presence would have morbid consequences. I well recall how the younger generation was ushered out of the synagogue while a few stole a glance at the sad countenance of those who remain to recite Yizkor. I have now been saying Yizkor for seven... Continue reading

The SS Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi - Daniel Lee 

  The SS Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi by Daniel LeeNew York: Hachette Books, 2020ISBN: 978-0-316-50909-1 "The SS! SS! It nauseates me every time I read or recall these revolting abbreviations," penned Yitzchak Katznelson, a Polish-Jewish writer and educator, in his diary on August 21, 1943. This year we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking official in the Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel, Protection Squad). The SS was an elite... Continue reading

Holocaust Education Resolution for the New Year: Uniting for the Sake of Future Generations

The late Holocaust scholar and survivor Professor Israel Gutman, a founder of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and author of the first Israeli textbook for teaching the Holocaust, used to say that the Holocaust refuses to be relegated the past; rather, it is a topic that is very much part of our present. Over the past seventy-five years, Holocaust education has grown exponentially all around the world.... Continue reading

Leaning In with Martha Salcudean

A short time after publishing her memoir, In Search of Light, Holocaust survivor Martha Salcudean died on July 17, 2019 in Canada. I do not know whether Martha ever met Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook and author of the international bestseller Lean In. Although Martha could have been Sandberg’s mother, I am sure that they shared many common interests, such as women in the workforce, innovation, moving to the West Coast of North America and coping with the loss of family members who died... Continue reading

German Police Cadets and Officers Learn from their Past

In a recent New York Times article entitled, In Germany, Confronting Shameful Legacy Is Essential Part of Police Training, the authors presented how Germany today ensures that its police force cannot be used to once again oppress, arrest and murder an entire segment of the society, as it did to the Jews during World War II and the Holocaust. For years, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, has been developing educational programs in many languages including German especially... Continue reading

Shoah and the Medical Profession, 75 Years after the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau

In her epic short story "Tell Me a Riddle", American-Jewish author Tillie Olsen writes, "Heritage. How have we come from our savage past, how no longer to be savages – this to teach. To look back and learn what humanizes – this to teach. To smash all ghettos that divide us – not to go back – this to teach." Olsen's words, an educational axiom, beckon readers to reflect and contend with "our savage past." In 2009, twin sisters Iudit Barnea and Lia Huber (nées Tchengar) were among the... Continue reading

Despite Antisemitic Zoom Attacks, Holocaust Survivior Tswi Herschel Will Not Desist

Holocaust survivor Tswi Herschel has spoken to many groups over the years, especially in Yad Vashem, but on Yom Hashoah 5780, he was “Zoom Bombed” as he began relating his personal story. His testimony presentation, organized by the Israeli embassy in Berlin, was on 20 April 2020 – ironically the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Although his mass, open lecture stopped due to this antisemitic attack, he was determined to continue. Unshaken, and armed a strong resolve, later that evening he... Continue reading

Canada and the Holocaust: Survivor Memoirs for Students of All Ages

On November 7, 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a formal apology in the House of Commons in Ottawa regarding the fate of the MS St. Louis and its more than 900 passengers. Trudeau apologized to the passengers, their families, and Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. On May 13, 1939, the MS St. Louis set sail from Hamburg for Havana, carrying mostly Jewish passengers who were desperate to escape persecution in Nazi Germany. Although all the Jewish refugees on... Continue reading

Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields - Wendy Lower

Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing FieldsWendy LowerBoston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013288 pages In 1987, Congress officially declared March to be Women’s History Month. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, the role of women in American history and contemporary society often took the spotlight in public discourse and on social media. Echoes and Reflections incorporates a plethora of primary sources  focusing on the experience of women and girls before, during, and... Continue reading

Research in Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust: A Dialogue Beyond Borders 

Research in Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust: A Dialogue Beyond Borders(eds.) Monique Eckmann, Doyle Stevick and Jolanta Ambrosewicz-JacobsBerlin: Metropol Verlag and International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, 2017404 pages This volume focuses on a multi-lingual literature review compiled by a steering committee of experts affiliated with member countries of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The research findings were presented in a major international... Continue reading

The Origins of the Birkenau Camp in Light of the Source Materials - Igor Bartosik, Lukasz Martyniak and Piotr Setkiewicz

Igor Bartosik, Lukasz Martyniak and Piotr SetkiewiczThe Origins of the Birkenau Camp in Light of the Source MaterialsOświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2017ISBN: 978-83-7704-201-4  Many iconic images surface when thinking about Auschwitz-Birkenau, particularly the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei sign, as well as the guard towers, railway tracks, former prisoner barracks, barbed wire fences and more. These images are often etched in people’s minds, whether they have visited the grounds... Continue reading

The International Status of Education about the Holocaust

The International Status of Education about the Holocaust: A Global Mapping of Textbooks and Curricula. Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, 2015, pp. 238. ISBN 9789231000331 As time passes, interest in learning more about the Holocaust appears to be continuously on the rise. For example, the expected number of visitors to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in 2015 will... Continue reading

Understanding and Teaching Holocaust Education - Paula Cowan and Henry Maitles

Paula Cowan and Henry MaitlesUnderstanding and Teaching Holocaust Education(London: SAGE, 2017), 184 pages.ISBN: 978-1-4739-1934-1 Cowan and Maitles have taught courses on Holocaust Studies and Citizenship at the University of the West of Scotland. In their new eleven-chapter book, the authors highlight many of the key issues in contemporary Holocaust education. They devote sections to pedagogical practices, age-appropriate approaches, study visits to authentic Holocaust-related historical... Continue reading

Reflections on the 4th National Conference on Holocaust Education, July 5-6, ‏2011

In June 1981, Abba Kovner stated, “As long as it is not too late, we must recognize that the Holocaust is not the obsession of those who survived, and that the identification with the six million victims, and the elements of that period are not just the concerns of those who experienced it themselves, but part of the long collective memory of the Jewish people, and the place of the Holocaust is in the historical consciousness of every Jewish generation everywhere.” This week, almost exactly... Continue reading

A New Stage at Yad Vashem

As we were standing in the construction site of a 330-seat Edmond J. Safra Lecture Hall being built as part of the new wing of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, I began to reflect on Brundibar, a theatrical event performed by Jewish children in Terezin as well as productions in other ghettos during the Shoah. Despite hunger, disease and despair, by acting on stage these thespians attempted to retain their own humanity as well as that of their audiences. Many of them... Continue reading

The Three R’s: Remembrance, Resentment and Responsibility

Remembrance ceremonies and events paying respect to the victims of the Holocaust began to be organized even before the Second World War ended. Official Commemoration ceremonies of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, beginning at sunset on the twenty-seventh day of the Jewish month of Nisan, became institutionalized in the State of Israel in the 1950s. On November 1, 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated January 27 as an annual International Day of... Continue reading

New "Righteous Among the Nations" High School in Lodz

Tomasz Klos, principal of the lyceum of the University of Lodz, is a trail blazer. Although an expert in the field of law, he opted to channel his energies to found a new high school in an effort to invest in the shaping of young minds, the leaders of tomorrow. On September 1, 2011, this new high school named in honor of the Righteous among the Nations, will officially open in a building that once was a textile factory owned by a Jewish family. Graduate students at the University of Lodz who... Continue reading

An Iconic Photograph

A bit after 8 pm on April 18, 2012, the eve of Holocaust Marytrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, I had just tucked my sons into bed. Since the rest of my family was attending the opening commemoration ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem, I decided to open the Yad Vashem website in order to catch a glimpse of the proceedings. However, as I watched the opening flash presentation on our website, my eyes became shockingly fixated on this iconic photograph. Could this be “Savta... Continue reading

Butterflies for Hannah

In 1935, Hannah Gofrit was born in Biala Ravska, Poland, a town where Jews and Poles had lived and worked together for generations. She had a wonderful childhood until WWII broke out in September 1939. I Wanted to Fly Like a Butterfly provides a touching account of Hannah’s experiences as a little girl before, during and following the Holocaust. This children’s book has been translated into a number of languages, including Spanish, French and Romanian. At the end of the book, written by... Continue reading

Yad Vashem and the Anne Frank House Strengthen Ties

In essence, Anne Frank wrote a “blog” 70 years ago. I have often wondered whether Anne would have won the Pulitzer Prize had she not died in Bergen Belsen? Anne Frank was one of the 1.5 million Jewish children who died during the Shoah simply because she was Jewish. In hiding in Amsterdam, Anne noted in her diary that she wanted to become a journalist. She was a teenager who had aspirations – similar to those of Moshe Flinker who while in hiding in Brussels noted in his diary that he... Continue reading

Remembering Settela: Refelctions Upon Visiting the New Monument to the Genocide of the Roma-Sinti in Berlin

On this overcast, misty morning in the heart of Berlin, I could feel the eyes of Anna Maria “Settela” Steinbach staring at me from the sky. Settela was born in Limburg, the Netherlands, in 1934. Settela was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz-Birkenau on May 19, 1944 together with other members of her family. The iconic photograph of “Settela” has appeared in so many films documenting the deportation of Nazi victims to exterminations camps. In essence, her face has become a “child... Continue reading

"A Reservoir of Educational Talent"

Professional seminars at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies are quite intense - packed with lectures, workshops, various interdisciplinary sessions and tours of the Yad Vashem campus. At the conclusion of these programs, participants often comment on their exhaustion and emotional overload,yet usually underscore, “We would not have changed a thing. It was a unique experience. Thank you.” More than 2,700 educators from every continent except Antartica, study every year... Continue reading

Who Was Who In and Around the Secret Annexe?

Who Was Who In and Around the Secret Annexe?Amsterdam: Anne Frank House, 2013174 pages  Annelies Marie Frank would have celebrated her 84th birthday this year had she survived the Holocaust. Despite the passage of time, her story as one of the one-and-a-half million Jewish children who were murdered in the Holocaust continues to be well known. Her diary – found following her family's deportation – has touched the hearts and minds of millions of readers. More than one million people every... Continue reading

The Dead Man in the Bunker - Martin Pollack

The Dead Man in the BunkerMartin PollackLondon: Faber and Faber Limited, 2006Translated by William Hobson216 pages This book focuses on the author’s personal journey to uncover the history of his biological father’s family, the Basts. The word "bast" comes from a Germanic origin, referring to "fibrous material obtained from the phloem of jute, hemp, and or flax to make rope." Ironically, Gerhard Bast, Martin Pollack’s father, may have been hanged by a rope made out of bast for his war... Continue reading

Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom: Key Issues and Debates - Paula Cowan and Henry Maitles

Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom: Key Issues and DebatesEdited by Paula Cowan and Henry Maitles London: Continuum, 2012200 pages Lifelong learning has been defined as the “lifelong, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. As such, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and employability”.1 In recent years, the European Commission has invested a... Continue reading

The Suffering of the Roma in Serbia during the Holocaust - Milovan Pisarri

The Suffering of the Roma in Serbia during the HolocaustMilovan PisarriForum for Applied History; Belgrade, 2014171 pages The Shoah and the genocide of the Roma are intertwined. Jewish and Roma people were persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime and their collaborators. German physicians conducted medical experiments on both Jewish and Roma prisoners. Jews and Roma were sometimes interned in the same camps and ghettos, killed in the same pits and burned in the same crematoria. For instance,... Continue reading

The Slovenian Righteous Among Nations - Irena Šumi and Oto Luthar (Eds.)

The Slovenian Righteous Among NationsIrena Šumi and Oto Luthar (Eds.)Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2016176 pp  Physicians worldwide are expected to uphold the Hippocratic Oath. According to a modern version written by Dr. Louis Lasagna of Tufts University, doctors make the following pledge: "I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm." The vast majority of doctors attend... Continue reading

Nazi Germany: 1933-45 - Christopher Culpin and Steve Mastin

Nazi Germany: 1933-45Christopher Culpin and Steve MastinHodder Education: London, 2013141 pages   In April 2007, the T.E.A.C.H. report on the Challenges and Opportunities on Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19 was released by the Historical Association in the UK. In this report, it was found that one teacher in one British school claimed that that they chose not to teach about the Holocaust at GCSE (where it was an optional subject) due to their concerns about the possible... Continue reading

The Holocaust and Other Genocides: An Introduction - Wichert ten Have and Barbara Boender

The Holocaust and Other Genocides: An IntroductionWichert ten Have and Barbara Boender Amsterdam: NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Amsterdam University Press, 2012176 pages This new anthology, edited by Wichert ten Have and Barbara Boender who are affiliated with NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, contains five articles that focus on different cases of genocide during the twentieth century. The last article focuses on legal definitions of genocide... Continue reading

Two Books on Auschwitz

Auschwitz from A to Z: An Illustrated History of the CampOswiecim: Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum, 2013207 pages                      The Private Lives of the Auschwitz SSCywiński, Piotr, Jacek Lachendro and Piotr Setkiewicz,Oswiecim: Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum, 2014134 pages   Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in Oswiecim outside of Krakow, Poland, has become a symbol of the Holocaust. One of the main reasons that the Nazi regime established the camp there was because it was a... Continue reading