United Nations Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony 2018

2018-04-20T08:12:33+08:00Tags: |

HKHTC marked the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 25 January 2018 with a moving, well-attended ceremony at the Sai Ying Pun Community Hall. With this year’s theme, “Holocaust Remembrance: Resistance and Resilience,” the commemoration was very successful with nearly 300 local Chinese and Jewish community members in attendance. Feedback was highly positive. Over thirty diplomats and dignitaries also attended, including Consuls General representing many European countries, the United States and Canada. The Under Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Jack Chan, represented the HKSAR government and delivered an excellent speech at the beginning of the ceremony.

HKHTC was deeply honoured that Mr Reich, a 90-year-old survivor of multiple concentration camps and the infamous death march, travelled from the United States to Hong Kong to share his story with the Hong Kong public. In addition to giving a keynote speech at the UNHMD ceremony, Mr Reich also visited different local schools and universities to share his experiences with young audience.

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Centre Statement on Myanmar’s Rohingya Refugee Crisis

2017-09-28T10:39:09+08:00Tags: , |

The HKHTC is deeply concerned about the developing humanitarian and refugee crisis due to developments in Rakhine state, Myanmar. There have been numerous reports of civilians being wounded and killed as well as Rohingya villages burnt. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have reportedly fled or been driven from their homes, resulting in a large scale humanitarian tragedy.

The HKHTC strongly condemns any violence targeting or affecting the civilian population. The HKHTC calls on the government of Myanmar to ensure the safety, legal protection and well-being of the civilian population, irrespective of their ethnicity or religion, and to grant humanitarian organizations unrestricted access to the affected communities and areas.

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Anne Frank in Shanghai: HKHTC Director Simon Li Gave Talks at Anne Frank Exhibition

2017-09-27T19:41:00+08:00

In late September 2017, HKHTC Director of Education Simon Li gave talks on Anne Frank to different groups of students– both Dutch and Chinese– for a special programme at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. Mr Li gave a very interactive presentation about Anne Frank followed by guided tour of the exhibition. Students in Shanghai were very enthusiastic about it and shared their thoughts on the exhibition. The “Anne Frank – A History for Today” exhibition is on view at the Jewish museum in Shanghai till summer 2018.

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‘The Auschwitz Album’ Exhibition in Sept. 2017

2017-09-27T18:45:28+08:00

In September 2017, the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre was pleased to present a unique set of photographs – The Auschwitz Album – an exhibition organized along with the University of Hong Kong’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures and in cooperation with Yad Vashem and the HKU Libraries. The Auschwitz Album is one of the most significant photographic collections of 20th century European history. They are the only surviving images documenting the systematic murder of European Jews by Germany between 1941-1945 at the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. The images capture the arrival at Auschwitz of a Jewish transport from Carpatho-Ruthenia in May 1944. The most striking fact of the album is its discovery by Lili Jacob, a survivor of that very same death transport. The Auschwitz Album is a critical primary source reminding us of the horrors and barbarism that took place at heart of Europe over 70 years ago.

‘The Auschwitz Album’ Exhibition took place at the Main Library, The University of Hong Kong, along with an opening talk ‘The Auschwitz Album and its Historical Significance’ by our board member Dr Roland Vogt.

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Japanese Documentary Filmmaker Tamaki Matsuoka Discussed Her Nanjing Massacre Film with Director of Education Simon Li

2017-08-25T08:36:29+08:00

Well-respected Japanese documentary filmmaker Tamaki Matsuoka and Director of Education Simon Li discussed her lifetime work on the Nanjing Massacre and her documentary Torn Memories of Nanjing. Ms Matsuoka is dedicated to educate the Japanese public about the Nanjing Massacre. She has been collecting information from survivors and perpetrators for more than two decades.

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‘Watchers of the Sky’ Screening at the 7th Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

2017-09-27T19:00:49+08:00Tags: , |

On 22 and 25 September 2017, the HKHTC was delighted to co-organise two screenings and discussion event with the Amnesty International:

Watchers of the Sky (天空守望者) – Screening and Discussion with Simon Li, HKHTC Director of Education
Chinese accessible captions will be available. 電影提供中文通達字幕。
The post-screening discussion will be conducted in Cantonese. 座談會以廣東話進行。

Venue: Broadway Cinematheque (Prosperous Garden, 3 Public Square Street, Yaumatei)
地點: 百老匯電影中心 (油麻地眾坊街3號駿發花園) 

About the film: Raphael Lemkin, a young Jewish lawyer from Poland, was forced to flee to the United States alone during the Holocaust, later learned that 49 members of his family were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Lemkin was a person who believed deeply in the rule of law. He created the term “genocide” and spent most of his life pushing the United Nations to create the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Lemkin also pushed to have some sort of enforcement mechanism in place, although he did not live to see the creation of what we now know of as the International Criminal Court. Lemkin passed away in New York City alone in 1959.

Watchers of The Sky interweaves the stories of four modern humanitarian advocates, including the last surviving prosecutor from Nuremberg, while exploring the long-forgotten story of Raphael Lemkin. For those who want to deepen their knowledge about the violent acts committed during World War II and modern International Criminal Law, you would not want to miss this film!

關於電影: 居於波蘭的猶太裔年青律師Raphael Lemkin被迫移居美國，及後得知其49名親人死於納粹集中營。Lemkin深信法治精神，可惜國際法庭卻苦無法律制止不斷重演的大屠殺。他因而創作genocide (種族滅絕) 一詞，致力推動聯合國採納並通過《防止及懲治滅絕種族罪公約》，成功為紐倫堡審判與國際刑事法院的工作奠定了重要基礎。1959年，Lemkin在紐約市孤獨地去世。

《天空守望者》連結四名人道主義者的故事，包括最後一位尚存的紐倫堡檢察官，同時側寫Lemkin被遺忘的事蹟。希望深度認識國際刑事法的由來的觀眾，萬勿錯過！

About the speaker: Simon Li is the Director of Education at the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre. An award-winning former journalist in Canada, he was a Senior Lecturer and Visiting Educator at the Amsterdam-based Anne Frank House in Spring 2017.

關於講者: 李家豪現為香港猶太大屠殺及寬容中心總監 (教育)。李曾是加拿大獲獎記者和高級講師。在本年上旬，李擔任荷蘭阿姆斯特丹安妮之家 (Anne Frank House) 訪問學人。

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On 72nd Anniversary Of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, HKHTC Director Met with Korean Victims of Atomic Bombs

2017-08-25T08:30:10+08:00Tags: , , |

As the world marks the 72nd anniversary of the A-bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Director of Education Simon K. Li interviewed with Mr Kim, a 91-year-old Korean victim of atomic bombs, in Seoul, along with other elderly atomic bomb victims whose tragic stories have now been almost forgotten.

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Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association’s Director & HKHTC Director Discussed Cases of Korean Hiroshima Victims

2017-08-25T08:33:58+08:00Tags: , , |

On the eve of the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Director of Education Simon Li met with Mr Sim Jintae, the Director of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association in South Korea. Mr Sim was a baby at the time when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thousands of Koreans who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan in the final days of WWII have struggled for decades with debilitating illness, poverty and discrimination with little help coming from Tokyo or Seoul.

Mr Li and Mr Sim discussed the association’s journey of struggles and its mission, as well as the experiences of some Korean Hiroshima victims who were in Japan as forced labour or had left Korea voluntarily to escape poverty. When these survivors returned to a divided Korea after Japan’s defeat, they were shunned out of fear of radiation poisoning-related illnesses while many struggled for decades due to ill health and mounting medical expenses. According to Mr Sim, there were about 70,000 Korean victims in total at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, with 40,000 dying in the blasts or shortly after. Japanese data shows slightly smaller numbers.

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UNESCO’s APCEIU Team & HKHTC Director Simon Li Discussed Global Citizenship Education

2017-08-25T08:41:42+08:00Tags: , , |

In summer 2017, Director of Education Simon Li visited the UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) in South Korea. Mr Li met with Ms Anna Chung, the APCEIU’s Head of External Relations, and her team. They had a very meaningful discussion on global citizenship education and Holocaust education in East Asia.

APCEIU is a UNESCO Category 2 Centre established in 2000 by the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Korea and UNESCO in order to promote and develop Education for International Understanding (EIU) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED) with UNESCO member states. GCED aims to empower learners to assume active roles to face and resolve global challenges and to become proactive contributors to a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and sustainable world.

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Secretary-General of the History NGO Forum for Peace in East Asia and HKHTC Director Discussed Peace Education in Asia

2017-08-25T08:47:57+08:00Tags: , |

HKHTC Director of Education Simon Li met with Mr Kang Sungho, Secretary-General of the History NGO Forum for Peace in East Asia, which recently organized the 7th International NGO Conference on History and Peace (in collaboration with the Northeast Asian History Foundation) at Korea University. Mr Kang and Mr Li had an in-depth discussion in Seoul which focused on teaching for peace as well as historical justice and the way it is perceived in East Asia.

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