Honoring the Past, Protecting the Future

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education teaches the history of the Holocaust, applying its lessons to counter indifference, intolerance, and genocide.


Through Hell to the Midwest – A Mapping Project of Local Survivors

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“Through Hell to the Midwest” is a mapping project that traces the stories of survivors who settled in the Kansas City area. Using oral history testimony collected by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and dually housed in the Fortunoff Archive at Yale University. Dr. Amber Nickell, Professor Hollie Marquess, and student Sarah Keiss from the Fort Hays State University History Department have mapped these survivors and their experiences. Each map tells the story of one Holocaust survivor, tracing their steps from their hometowns in Central and Eastern Europe, through their Holocaust experiences to their new lives in Kansas and Missouri.

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Fall 2024 Newsletter and 2024 Impact Report


Learn from the survivors.

Frank Adler

Frank Adler was born Franz Julius Schwarzadler, in 1923 in Frankfurt, Germany. As the only child in an affluent family Frank enjoyed many cultural activities and a rich Jewish and secu…

Ethel Ardow

Ethel Obornik was born in Bedzin, Poland….

Ralph Berets

Ralph Berets parents and older sister fled to Holland from Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power. His father financed the move by converting their assets into diamonds and gold and s…

Esther Bergh

Esther Laster was born in 1924 in Munich, Germany. She lived there with her family until January 1939 when she was placed on the first Kindertransport out of Munich. Esther spent the wa…

Warner Bergh

Warner Silberberg was born in Germany in 1923. At the end of October 1938, 15-year-old Warner left Berlin with his parents to begin a journey that crossed three continents, leaving behi…

Evelyn Bergl

Evelyn Arzt was born in Vienna in 1931. On Kristallnacht, her father was arrested. After nearly a year in Buchenwald and Dachau, he was released on condition that he leave Austria in 24…

Zdenko Bergl

Zdenko Bergl, an only child, grew up in Zabno, Croatia, a small town with only five Jewish families. Zdenko played soccer, attended public school, and had Hebrew lessons on Sunday. The …

Felicia Brill

Felicia Sussman was born in 1922 in Vienna, Austria. She enjoyed a comfortable life as the only child of her parents with a large extended family. Shortly after the annexation of Austri…

Margalith Clarenberg

Margalith Clarenberg was born in Germany in 1928 but later moved to Holland with her parents. Twice during the German occupation Margalith’s mother received an order to report for reset…

Ilsa Cole

Ilsa Dahl grew up in Geilenkirchen, Germany where her family had lived for generations. They were observant Jews and patriotic Germans, and Ilsa’s father had served in the German army d…

Iser Cukier

Iser Cukier (born Iser Cukrowski) the youngest of seven children, was born in Częstochowa, Poland, where his family owned a large bakery that was located in the same building as their a…

Tola Cukier

Tola Gottlieb was born in 1924 in Sosnowiec, Poland to an observant Jewish family. One of four siblings, Tola remembers that though her family was not wealthy, they had what they needed…

News

Reflecting on the year since October 7 – Remarks delivered at a community commemoration on October 1, 2024

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MCHE statement regarding hate speech on campuses

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MCHE Statement regarding October 7

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Featured Resources

Holocaust History

Dr. Jeffrey Herf – The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust

Holocaust History

Dr. William Meinecke – Building the Racial State

Holocaust History

Visualizing Genocide: The Auschwitz Album and the Process of Genocide – Dr. Fran Sternberg – Auschwitz Speaker Series

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5801 West 115th Street STE #106,
Overland Park, KS 66211

(913) 327-8192

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