Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance) & Genocide Commemoration Day — April 18, 2023

For the third year, we are hosting an all-District Genocide Commemoration Day, commemorating Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) with special programming.  At DHS, the student team wanted to fill the whole day and offer students options to build their own individual schedules, following their interests through the Learn, Remember and Take Action components of the in-person and online experiences.

All day programming in person and online

• Wall of Names - This is a tribute to those whose lives were lost to genocide.  These gold-on-black panels have been part of our annual displays for many years now.  They hold representations of victims from various genocides and were inspired by the website and hashtag #TogetherWeRemember.

• Lest We Forget - This display includes profiles of victims, survivors, rescuers and upstanders with connections to District 113.  The moving biographies, often told by family members and each with a photograph, will be on display on the windows and on showcases outside the Auditorium.  The collection can be viewed on our Remember webpage.

• Hate Today - With the rise of antisemitism and other hate incidents, our student team felt it was important to once again put up both the College Campus Hate display and the interactive ADL H.E.A.T. map.  Three of our sessions (ADL’s David Goldenberg, Peggy Shapiro of Stand With Us, and our very own Peer Influencers) will reference such incidents and how to deal with them, should you find yourself as a target or a bystander.  You can view resources and learn how to combat hate on our Hate Today webpage.

• Take Action Options - Our student team is working on compiling a variety of petitions on pending bills and other public policies, and we will have these both at our in-person displays and online; you can access these options under the Take Action webpage and on Instagram.  We also provided two sessions for students to learn upstander techniques through the ADL's Peer Influencer Training.

• Upstander Wall - with stories of individuals and groups from right here at DHS to internationally recognized people who have made a difference and how

• A Forgotten Genocide — 100 years since the Smyrna Catastrophe (Genocide of Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians)

• “Actually, they came first for the Disabled” - a display about people with disabilities in the Holocaust and connections to the US eugenics movement

• Early Warning Signs of Genocide in Ukraine & Artsakh, Azerbeijian - see the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention for the latest

• Americans and the Holocaust - We originally put up this display in one of the first years of the GCD program; we return to it this year to accompany the 1st period speaker, Dr. Daniel Greene, who will highlight his work on the original exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the book that resulted, and his work advising and appearing in the latest documentary from PBS, The US and the Holocaust.

• Update on Native Americans - In 2022, we studied the use of boarding schools as a form of cultural genocide (see the webpage on American Indians), and we emphasized education as a tool to help the healing process.  This display will serve as an update and continued commitment to learning and to offering guidance for those who wish to take action.

• Timeline of Mexica
• Follow Us On Instagram 

Session Information, Detailed Speaker Biographies, Photos & Video Recordings

We will update this page with images and links to the video recordings as soon as they are available.

1st Period - Dr. Daniel Greene (Auditorium—8:10-9:07 am)

Daniel Greene (Highland Park High School Class of 1991) has been President and Librarian of the Newberry Library since 2019, where he had also served as Vice President for Research and Academic Programs and Director of the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture.  Greene curated Americans and the Holocaust, an exhibition that opened in April 2018 at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Greene co-edited (with Edward Phillips) Americans and the Holocaust: A Reader (published in 2022). The exhibition also inspired The U.S. and the Holocaust, a documentary film directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein that aired on PBS in September 2022. Greene served as an advisor and appeared in the film. In his presentation, Greene will show segments of the film and discuss the process of working with the filmmakers to document this important angle into the history of the Holocaust.  (This profile courtesy of the Newberry Library)

 2nd Period - Professor Valentina Kuryliw (Auditorium—9:29-10:26 am)

Ms. Kuryliw will be joining us from Canada via Zoom, projected onto the screen.  Students will have the opportunity to ask questions via a Google Form.

A historian and retired teacher with over 40 years of experience, Ms. Valentina Kuryliw has dedicated her life to education. For over 16 years, Ms. Kuryliw has spent her summers volunteering in order to offer additional qualification courses for history teachers in Ukraine, focusing on teaching history using critical thinking skills and interactive methods.  She wrote a textbook that is used for training teachers in institutes and universities in Ukraine.  Ms. Kuryliw has been the Chair of the National Holodomor Education Committee of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress since 2009, and was recently appointed Director of the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC). Ms. Kuryliw has conducted In-Service Teacher Training sessions across Canada on the Holodomor and Internment for professional organizations and school boards, spending years developing Holodomor teaching materials, including a Teaching Kit and Workbook for educators in Canada.  (This profile courtesy of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, photograph Wikipedia)

3rd Period - Eric Blaustein (Auditorium—10:31-11:28 am)

Eric was 6 years old in 1933 when the Nazi party entered his town of Chemnitz in Saxony (Eastern Germany).  He was from a middle class family, and things remained normal for them until 1938.  His family stayed in Germany, and in 1940, Eric’s father joined the Underground in another city.  At age 15, Eric became a grave digger.  Soon after, he went into open hiding – using papers that said he was a Hitler Youth.  He was arrested in September of 1944, as a suspected deserter of the German Army.  He confessed that he was Jewish, and not a German soldier, and was immediately sent to Buchenwald.  Upon entering Buchenwald, he swapped identities with an Italian inmate who had died, leaving behind his identity as Eric Blaustein and becoming a man named Luigi. He served as a laborer in the camp for five months, until he was liberated from a satellite camp of Buchenwald.  His entire family had survived the Holocaust. In 1948, he moved to Israel and fought in the War of Independence. This is also where he met his wife.  Eric came to the United States in 1954 and now lives near his daughter and grandchildren in Lombard, IL.  (This profile courtesy of the IL Holocaust Museum and Education Center)

4th Period - Violins of Hope (Auditorium—11:33am-12:40pm)

This session will feature both a presentation by Violins of Hope and performances by DHS students, who will be playing on these very precious instruments.

Israeli violin makers, Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, have spent the last 20 years collecting and repairing 70 Holocaust-era violins and other stringed instruments from around the world, some with the Star of David on the back and others with names and dates inscribed within the instrument. Together, they have lovingly located and restored the violins to reclaim their lost heritage, give voice to the victims and reinforce essential messages of hope, harmony, and humanity.  Violins of Hope has been featured in books, print, film and television. They have been used in lectures and educational programs worldwide, exhibited in museums, and have been triumphantly played in concert halls around the globe. Through performances, exhibitions, and educational series, the instruments have impacted and inspired hundreds of thousands of people of all ages with a message of hope, resistance, resilience, and unity. (This profile courtesy of the JCC Chicago)  (This session runs from 11:33 am - 12:40 pm.  You may not bring food into the Auditorium, but you will be excused at 12:40 for your lunch period.

• see Chicago Tribune article "Violins from the Holocaust Arrive in Chicago" (13 April 2023)
• see this WGN story by Erin Ivory, who visited DHS to capture students, such as Abby Izaks (DHS class of 2024, whose great grandparents were Holocaust Survivors) playing the instruments, and Holocaust Survivor Eric Blaustein's reaction to watching the instruments be played

4th Period - Behind the Swastika: Where Hatreds Meet (E114—11:40am-12:25pm)

Opening with the genocide committed by Germany in Namibia, the lesson traces how the genocidal worldview of Nazism led to the Holocaust. Hitler’s admiration for U.S. Jim Crow laws and “Manifest Destiny” are also discussed, as is how the Nazis dehumanized and demonized Jewish people and Black people alike.  Presented by the Holocaust Education Center from Stand With Us. (This session runs from 11:40-12:25.  You may bring your lunch to E114.)

4th Period - Upstander/Bystander Intervention Training (G109—12:13-1:10pm)

DHS Peer Influencers, trained by the ADL, will lead this interactive session.  This session is repeated during other periods; interested students should only sign up once.  (This session runs from 12:13-1:10.  You may bring your lunch to G109.)

5th Period - David Goldenberg (Auditorium—1:15-2:12pm)

David Goldenberg is a member of the District 113 community and serves as Regional Director of the Midwest regional office of the ADL.  He has a background in advocacy, policy, engagement and philanthropy.  In the past, he has also worked as an associate staff member of the House Committee on Rules, staff director of the House Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process and co-staff director of the Democratic Israel Working Group.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF) and also serves on the Illinois State Treasurer’s Community Advisory Council and JFNA’s National Young Leadership Cabinet.  (This profile courtesy of the ADL Chicago)

6th Period - Gualberto Vilchis (Auditorium—2:17-3:14pm)

Gualberto Vilchis lives in Mexico and visits family here in the Chicago area often.  He is a gifted storyteller, whose passion for the history of the Aztecs has inspired him to join us today.  Mexico City used to be Tenochtitlan. The city where the Aztecs settled. Gualberto is Aztec on his father’s side, with his grandfather being Aztec and his grandmother from Tlaxcala. Gualberto has in-depth knowledge and first-hand culture of the Aztecs. He is very dedicated to sharing the story of his ancestors to ensure it isn’t forgotten. The Aztecs were a beautiful culture before the Spanish colonization and genocide, and in his speech, Gualberto will talk about how the world was in 1600, the cultures in Mexico, how the Aztecs came to rule Mexico, the destruction of Aztec culture and genocide by Spanish colonizers, his personal family history, and a couple of Aztec legends.  (This profile courtesy of the Vilchis family)

6th Period - “One Story Multiplied by 6 Million” & How to Deal With Antisemitism (E116—2:17-3:14pm)

Peggy Shapiro will tell a compelling personal story and connect it to how we can recognize and combat antisemitism in daily life and in spaces like college campuses.  Peggy Shapiro is the National Director of Special Projects for Stand With Us. A child of Holocaust survivors born in a displaced persons camp, she was one of the founding members of the Midwest Association of Children of Holocaust Survivors and the International Second Generation Association. She was appointed as special adviser to the president of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by Elie Wiesel and served as the annual chairperson for the Elie Wiesel lecture series in Chicago for 26 years. Prior to her role in Stand With Us, she served as chairperson of the Foreign Language/ESL Department at the City Colleges of Chicago and professor for 31 years.  (This profile courtesy of the Jewish News Syndicate and Times of Israel)