Trip Report

VISAS FOR LIFE

Moral Courage During the Holocaust
The Story of Chiune Sugihara  

See also Event Photos and Program Info - Page 1 and 2

The first of what we hope will be many Holocaust Education Programs with Delaware Valley Schools, took place today, November 6, 2000. Thirteen students, freshman through seniors, attended the all day workshop held at Keystone College designed to provide a "hands on" history experience for high school students from many schools throughout the area. Tova Weiss, director of the Holocaust Museum and Resource Center in Scranton, provided a brief historical overview of pre-war Europe. Mr. Abe Plotkin, a WW II veteran was among the first troops liberating the concentration camps following Germany's surrender. He spoke and showed photographs he had taken in that hell of Hitler's horrendous aftermath. He shared conversations he had with the survivors in his photographs, and it was as if he had just spoken with that person a few moments ago. History had come alive, and Mr. Plotkin seized the moment. As the students listened raptly, his summation was a forceful statement of why he has made this kind of speaking his present life focus. "No person, because he or she looks different, believes or thinks differently, should ever be subjected to hate!"

The program included an art exhibition by Frank Root, titled Journey Into Darkness. His evocative sculputural images of the holocaust, led to reflective questions from the participants in their conversation period that followed. Ward Roe, Director of Exhibitions at Keystone, held a slide and discussion session following lunch, on using photography to capture images convey ideas that students may use as part of their culminating projects they will produce. Ms. Jane Honchell, a writing instructor at the college, conducted a workshop giving the students more strategies for their projects.

The afternoon brought another first hand account of survival in Nazi Europe. Mr. Hiroki Sugihara, was a young child when his father served as Japanese Consul in Lithuania. The program, VISAS FOR LIFE: Moral Courage During the Holocaust, The Story of Chiune Sugihara, included a video dramatization of the story of this diplomat and his family as he courageously and painstakingly handwrote over 6,000 visas enabling those Jews to escape the certain death of those remaining in Europe in 1940. Mr. Sugihara answered questions from the students about his family's experience, and surprised them with the fact that neither this brave diplomat, nor the rest of the world knew until 28 years after the end of the war, that any of the 6,000 Jews had survived!

As described in the program brochure, Mr. Sugihara's "concerns for human rights, and respect for all human life provide a model of action which teaches that every ONE can make a difference in this world." The students who participated have already begun to do just that, by taking the first step to educate themselves on this horrible historical event. They've been changed by the people they met today, and the people they'll touch with their projects will be changed. This is our only hope to insure that this nightmare will happen "Never Again!"

Rosanne La Russo Kolberg
Chairperson, Tri-State Unity Coalition