HOW THE NAZIS ENGINEERED EVIL DURING THE HOLOCAUST TO BE SUBJECT OF WORKSHOP AT VINELAND BOARD OF EDUCATION ON JUNE 7

Presented by South Jersey Holocaust Coalition
Back, Live and in Person!!
Free Presentation Open to the Public; Reservation Deadline June 1

What were the processes and plans used to murder the millions of Jews throughout Europe in the Holocaust? What insight can we get by examining the individual lives of some of those who perished—as well as the actions and plans of those who perpetrated the Holocaust?

These issues will be explored at a workshop, free, live, and open to the public, on Tuesday, June 7, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m., at the Vineland Board of Education, 61 W. Landis Ave., Vineland, NJ.

This workshop, entitled “Engineering Evil Inside the Holocaust,” is presented by South Jersey Holocaust Coalition and New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, with funding from the Annual Campaign of One Jewish Community—Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties.

To attend either in-person or virtually, please register no later than Wednesday, June 1 by going to www.HolocaustCoalition.com and, on the “Coming Events” page, clicking on “Register Here” and completing the registration form. Educators desiring Professional Development credits should kindly provide their name, contact information, and school. Though virtual attendance is available, live attendance is stressed and highly recommended.

No registration fee or cost is required to attend this workshop, but donations of any size are greatly appreciated. A light snack will be provided.

The workshop will give personal insight into the lives of those murdered and into the actions and plans of those responsible. You will delve deeper into how the Nazis were able to commit horrific crimes against humanity over the course of just a few years.

Robert Holden, of the South Jersey Holocaust Coalition, will be showing and discussing the film Engineering Evil, which is narrated by historian Dr. Michael Berenbaum and produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, of which Berenbaum was a founder. In this film, a gripping portrait of the Holocaust from the early days of persecution of the Jewish people in Nazi Germany to the implementation of massive concentration camps, viewers will:

—–learn about artifacts, photographs, and oral histories giving evidence of the Nazis evil plans;
—–focus on the more intimate and everyday stories of political transformation, violence, and loss under the Nazi regime;
—–gain specific and personal insights into the lives of those who perished and the actions of plans of the perpetrators;
—–travel through the archives of Eastern Europe to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and its restoration labs in Israel to see how artifacts serve as powerful links to those who lost their lives;
—–learn through curators and historians about how the Nazis were able to accomplish such horrific crimes against humanity in the course of just a few years.
—–explore and discuss the methods historians use to preserve the memory of communities destroyed during this horrendous period in world history.

Holden, who has taught this subject for over 40 years, will guide and provide explanations as the film progresses. He will provide to each attendee a study sheet which will provide an expansion of the terms used by Berenbaum in the film.

Robert Holden’s commitment to Holocaust education began in 1982 at Ocean City (NJ) Intermediate School, when he designed a mini-course for his gifted/talent junior high school students. Visiting various concentration camps in Europe during a Holocaust Studies Tour in 1997 resulted in an increased determination to speak about the Holocaust. He was a member of a committee of New Jersey Educators to totally revise the state’s Secondary Holocaust Studies Curriculum.

Upon “retirement,” he taught Holocaust Studies at the Trocki Hebrew Academy and supervised elementary student teachers through Rowan University. For his efforts in teaching about the Holocaust, he received the Honey and Maurice Axelrod Award, proceeds from which used in part to set up the Holocaust/Genocide Studies Collection at the Cape May Campus of Atlantic Community College.

He is the co-author of two secondary curriculum guides that have been published by the New Jersey Holocaust Commission and is in the process of writing two other history-related books.

Holden, as Upper Township (NJ) historian, has written a book about its history entitled The History of the Ten Villages of Upper Township, which has recently been released. He has also completed a book about Chinese diplomat Feng Shan Ho who was the Chinese ambassador in Vienna during the Holocaust and through his efforts saved thousands of Jews in Austria in 1938. For this, Ho has a memorial on The Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.

For more information on this and all South Jersey Holocaust Coalition events and activities, please visit the Coalition’s website at www.holocaustcoalition.com Please see their Facebook page at “South Jersey Holocaust Coalition” for interesting articles and information about the Holocaust and related subjects. You may also email holocaustcoalition@gmail.com