Dissuading Prejudice Through Education

The Holocaust will forever remain a black stain on the soul of humanity. Our most effective weapon in the fight to prevent such an atrocity from ever again occurring is knowledge, but that weapon has been compromised. Violence in the media has desensitized our society. We are isolated from each other and so we struggle to understand. The Holocaust Resource Center and Archives (HRCA) at Queensborough Community College is continuing the fight by bringing people face to face with the Holocaust through firsthand sources.
The facts are clear. Six million Jews were coldly identified, detained and murdered. One and a half million of those were children and more than 23 million people died in total. But pure statistics do not assist people in grasping the hatred, greed, fear and indifference that led to the Holocaust. The facts dont clarify the causes.
The HRCA, now in its 20th year of operation, was founded by director Dr. William Shulman to focus on education, research and remembrance using documentation, photographs, and survivor testimonies. Using lessons learned from the Holocaust, the center teaches tolerance and an understanding of prejudice so that younger generations can recognize and reject hatred to prevent history repeating itself. Its teaching tools include an expanding collection of books, documents and audio-visual materials for use by students and anyone wanting to learn more.
"It goes back to why I began teaching about the Holocaust," said Shulman. "I started teaching that because I had students who asked me to develop a course. Once I had the course, it became a matter of where to go to get materials, so I approached the president of the college. We began to put together materials and eventually that became the center. It developed out of our teaching needs."
To accumulate materials, the center had to purchase the 10,000 book, over 700 videos and photographic collections that make up the centers collection. Now, staff and volunteers rely on state and city funding, as well as private donations to preserve its archive materials, provide stimulating lectures and host exhibits, including art, personal and historic narrative and photographs.
The center also arranges visits that will meet the age and interest level of groups of teachers and students, and publishes educational guides for middle and high schools, assisting schools throughout the state in complying with the New York State law mandating the inclusion of the Holocaust in social studies curriculums. The center provides "teachers trunks" to schools, which consist of books and teaching materials for an entire class. Almost 50 schools, including Catholic and Hebrew schools and public and private schools of all levels, used materials provided by the HRCA during the last academic year.
"It is important to present these materials because the Holocaust was a watershed event in the 20th century. It changed the way we look at the history of that century and the present century as well. It becomes the measuring rod of the genocide that took place after and continues to take place." Shulman explained. "I think it may make a difference educating individuals. The hope is, if you educate enough individuals you might change the course of history."
Queensborough College recently launched a large scale fund-raising campaign called "Building On Our Tradition," which is seeking enough money to give the HRCA a permanent home and establish an endowment that will ensure adequate staffing, continuous programming and dissemination of educational materials. Plans for relocation call for a prominent on-campus facility with an additional 4,900 square feet of space to house their expanding collection.
The coming of the fall school year means the commencement of the Eva Bobrow Lecture Series, which is comprised of free presentations that are open to the public. The Holland and the Holocaust series will begin with "The Jerusalem of the West" on September 14, a lecture discussing the dichotomy between the view that Holland was a safe haven for Jews during the Holocaust and the realities of high rates of deportations. On November 16, the center will present "Collaboration and Resistance," a look at the myth of Nazi collaboration, and on December 14, "The Story of a Diary," which will examine the impact of the diary of Anne Frank. All lectures will be held at 1 p.m. in the Medical Arts Building, room 136.
The Holocaust Center is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.