The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education teaches the history of the Holocaust, applying its lessons to counter indifference, intolerance, and genocide.
Spring 2026 Lunch and Learn Series
Participants will explore how the Nazi state harnessed film, radio, print, visual art, mass spectacle, and education to promote ideology, cultivate loyalty, and marginalize or dehumanize targeted groups.
Available in-person and on Zoom.
The Rwandan Genocide was carried out in the east-central African nation of Rwanda between April-July 1994. Between 800,000 and 1 million people were killed during this 100-day period.
This workshop for educators will facilitate basic knowledge of the history of the Rwandan Genocide, explore some of the challenges, benefits, and best practices for teaching about this event within curriculum about genocide, war, and/or human rights in the 20th Century.
Event is limited to teachers. Registration is required.
MCHE Common Book Spring 2026
The community is invited to read The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History and join MCHE’s Dr. Shelly Cline and Dr. Melissa Karp in conversation.
In By the Grace of the Game, Dan Grunfeld shares the remarkable story of his family and their path from the Hungarian experience of the Holocaust to the NBA.
This program is co-sponsored by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, Jewish Experiences, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. Generous support for MCHE’s sponsorship was provided by the Jean G. Zeldin Partners in Holocaust Education Fund at MCHE.
Annual community Yom Hashoah commemoration. All are welcome.
New York pianist, Roger Peltzman’s one-person show, “Dedication,” recounts his family’s tragic history fleeing the Nazis in war-torn Europe using drama, humor, powerful images, and musical performances of everything from blues to Chopin.
Drawn into the story of people he never knew, Peltzman develops a “relationship” with his uncle, Norbert Stern, a brilliant pianist who was murdered in Auschwitz at age 21. Learning that Holocaust trauma can be inherited, Peltzman recounts his coming to terms with second generation survivor trauma and the role of music in helping to manage wounds that will never fully heal.
Co-sponsored by The White Theatre and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. Generous support provided by the MCHE Jack Mandelbaum Holocaust Education Fund.
The 2026 State of Kansas Holocaust Commemoration featured a proclamation by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and a presentation by Dr. Judy Jacobs, a Hungarian survivor from Budapest who experienced the Kastner Train and incarceration at Bergen-Belsen.
The commemoration occurs each spring and is open to the public and to school audiences.
Join us for this online presentation by Dr. Samuel Kassow.
Dr. Kassow is Charles Northam Professor of History Emeritus, Trinity College and author of Who Will Write Our History: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archives (Indiana University Press, 2007). He served as a consultant for the documentary film version of Who Will Write Our History. He is the author of The Clandestine History of the Kovno Jewish Ghetto Police.
In 2027, we observe the 85th anniversary of the Nazis systematic plan to annihilate Europe’s Jewish population—known as the Final Solution. This journey from Germany to Poland follows the path of destruction while honoring the resilience and vibrancy of Jewish life before the Holocaust. We will explore Jewish heritage sites that tell the stories of thriving communities before the war, we will visit ghettos, memorials, museums, and former killing centers, to deepen our understanding of how the Holocaust unfolded, commemorate the lives lost, and honor those who resisted and survived.
This experience is open to MCHE members for enrollment.
“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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