Director of Education Simon Li visited a major hospital in Quzhou, where the Japanese germ warfare took place in World War II. Many victims of the anthrax attack have suffered from rotten feet for decades. Mr Li met a 90-year-old victim, Chen Chunhua, and the chief doctor who took care of the germ warfare victims over the past few years.
HKHTC Director of Education Simon Li met with Professor Chen Lifei (co-author of Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan’s Sex Slaves, UBC Press, 2014) of the Chinese “Comfort Women” History Museum at the Shanghai Normal University in July. Professor Chen gave Mr Li a tour of the moving exhibition on comfort women victims. They then had a meaningful exchange on how to approach the comfort women issue in classroom.
HKHTC Director of Education Simon Li recently visited an elderly hospital in Quzhou, China to meet with Mr and Mrs Fang, victims of the Japanese germ warfare, to discuss their painful experiences during the anthrax attack by the Japanese soldiers in Quzhou.
After the success of our previous contest we were proud to organize the Art & Writing contest for Years 9 – 13 students in Hong Kong. This
year’s theme is ‘HOW AND WHY SHOULD WE REMEMBER ACTS OF GENOCIDE?’
This year’s student winners have approached this question creatively. Here are the winners and their works:
Visual Arts Category: drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, film
Winner: Anja Herrmann (Island School – Year 11)
https://youtu.be/F55YpUz0bTw
Performing Arts Category: drama, spoken-word poetry, dance, performance, composition
Winners: Emily Wong, Jacqueline Pan, Anina Law (Sha Tin College – Year 9)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSImUuwir2M&feature=em-upload_owner
Writing Category: creative or essay
Winner: Ofir Razon (Elsa High School – Year 11)
In May 2017, Simon Li, (HKHTC Director of Education and Anne Frank House’s Visiting Educator), Ephraim Kaye (Yad Vashem’s Director of International Seminars for Educators) and Glenn Timmermans (University of Macau’s Professor and HKHTC Board Director) travelled to China to present several workshops at the International School of Dongguan (ISD) for teachers and educators in the region and neighbouring
districts.
HKHTC’s workshops for the local and expatriate teachers in the Guangdong Province include: “How to Teach the Holocaust: Victims,
Perpetrators, Bystanders”, “The Decision to Kill the Jews: The Final Solution and its Implementation”, “The History of Antisemitism”, as
well as “Confronting the Phenomenon of Holocaust Denial: A Workshop”. In our workshop series in early May, there were more than 30 educators who took part in our Teacher Training Workshops. Then in our subsequent follow-up workshop series in late May, the number of
educator participants rose to around 60. The school has invited HKHTC to return to Dongguan next year again for more Teacher Training
Workshops.
Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, is observed every year. It is a day of commemoration of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a result of actions carried out by Nazi Germany. On April 24, HKHTC was honored to host the annual Yom Hashoah ceremony, which was held at the Jewish Community Centre, in remembrance of the millions of Jewish lives that perished in the Holocaust.
This year’s theme was “Never Again”. Members from all of Hong Kong’s Jewish congregations were represented.In addition, representatives from many consulates joined the evening’s gathering and other multi-faith leaders.In attendance was Sagi Karni, Consul General of Israel to Hong Kong, who gave an address. Opening remarks were read by Glen Steinman, HKHTC Director. The evening programme included a moving and graphic video documentary entitled Sgt. Howard Cwick, Jewish Liberator: Eyewitness to History.
In late May 2017, HKHTC’s Director of Education Simon Li and the Director of European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO) Jonathan Evan-Zohar met together in The Hague to discuss strategies that can help history educators in Asia to develop meaningful and effective ways to enhance classroom teaching on the Holocaust and related WWII topics. Mr Li and Mr Evan-Zohar also discussed prospects of future collaboration between the two organisations.
EUROCLIO is an organisation that was established in 1992 at the request of the Council of Europe. It aims to foster the development of innovative and responsible history, heritage history and citizenship through developing critical thinking, incorporating diverse perspectives and worldview, as well as creating a community of mutual respect.
As the Amsterdam-based Anne Frank House’s Visiting Educator, HKHTC’s Director of Education Simon Li visited the Westerbork camp, which was a WWII Nazi detention and transit camp in Hooghalen, on the Liberation Day (Dutch: Bevrijdingsdag). In the Netherlands, Liberation Day is commemorated each year on May 5th to mark the end of the occupation by Nazi Germany during WWII. During the visit at Westerbork, Mr Li also met with local students and educators from the region.
In April 2017, secondary students from Yew Chung International School (YCIS) came to the HKHTC resource centre to participate in a workshop delivered by Director of Education Simon Li on the Auschwitz concentration camp. This workshop was aimed to prepare the student actors and actresses prior to their performance of the “Auschwitz Lullaby”. The school later shared with HKHTC that the school play was a big success.
HKHTC continues to broaden its reach. HKHTC Director of Education Simon Li has served as a visiting educator at the Anne Frank House in
Amsterdam this spring. During his academic visit, Mr Li and the in-house educators at the Anne Frank House have been exchanging
scholarly ideas related to approaches to teaching Anne Frank’s diary in Asia and the pedagogy of Holocaust education.
“Since the days when I was a senior lecturer in academia, I’ve strived to teach tolerance and mutual respect through the inspiring story of
Anne Frank,” Mr Li said. “I find this opportunity to share ideas about an important topic I’ve taught in East Asia for my entire academic
life truly exciting.” An award-winning former journalist from Toronto, Mr Li served as the Head of General Education at a tertiary institute
in Hong Kong before being appointed by HKHTC as its Director of Education in 2016. Anne Frank House is a writer’s house and
biographical museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank.
