Honoring the Past, Protecting the Future

The Holocaust and Poland

Featuring Dr. Shelly Cline – Historian and Director of Education, Midwest Center for Holocaust Education

Of all the countries impacted by the Holocaust and the Second World War, few have as complicated a history as that of Poland. By the war’s end, six million Poles, including three million Jews, were killed. Poland was the location of all six of the Nazi killing centers at the heart of the “Final Solution.”

Dr. Cline’s presentation will explore Poland’s complex and competing memories of the Holocaust.

The number of perpetrators in the Holocaust was relatively small compared to the millions of civilians living in occupied Europe during the Second World War. What about these millions of others? Where do they fall on the spectrum of responsibility that ranges from perpetrator, to collaborator, to bystander, to rescuer? This workshop, taught by MCHE’s historian Dr. Shelly Cline, explores these issues and helps educators draw relevant connections for their students to the world today.

A registration fee of $15 includes all class materials and light dinner for those attending in person.

Jews under Nazi control faced various and overwhelming obstacles to effective resistance. Despite this, Jews repeatedly sought to oppose Nazi policy in various ways. These successful acts of resistance took many forms ranging from personal acts to preserve dignity, social acts to preserve the community, and eventually, armed uprisings. This talk will highlight and contextualize the forms of resistance found in the Vilna ghetto. What made Vilna so unique and how did it compare to Jewish responses in other locations? Presented by Dr. Shelly Cline, MCHE Historian and Director of Education.

In March of 1943 deportations from Greece began. Nearly 80% of its prewar Jewish population would be murdered, primarily in Auschwitz-Birkenau. To mark the 80th anniversary of these deportations, Dr. Michael Berenbaum will discuss the unique experience of Greek Jewish community before and during the Holocaust.

This presentation honors the memory of Holocaust survivor Alegre Tevet and her daughter Matilda Rosenberg who was a dedicated speaker in the MCHE Second Generation Speakers Bureau. The presentation is free and open to the public.