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.

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.

Director of Education Simon Li gave a sharing session on The Diary of Anne Frank and our centre’s work for different members of Hong Kong’s faith communities this spring.

Harbour School’s Grade 6 students visited our Resource Centre in Shau Kei Wan on June 5, 2017. Director of Education Simon Li gave all students a workshop which explored the Holocaust through the stories of the victims, perpetrators and bystanders. The workshop helped students to have a further understanding of the worst crime in history.

Congratulations to Sha Tin College for a very successful and meaningful Genocide Exhibition! Our centre’s board director April Kaminsky gladly presented prizes to the winners on the STC campus before the weekend. Warmest congrats to everyone for your thoughtful artworks!

The Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre was in China on May 26 and 27, 2017. Holocaust survivor Henry Friedman was joined by HKHTC Director of Education Simon K. Li (Visiting Educator, Anne Frank House) and our Board Director Glenn Timmermans (Professor, University of Macau) to present workshops relating to Holocaust and genocide education. The conference was attended by hundreds of educators from different communities in South China.

 

 

HKHTC was proud to host a dialogue seminar with our guest Holocaust survivor Henry Friedman at the University of Hong Kong’s SPACE campus on May 22, 2017. It was a full house with dynamic audience from different generations. A very memorable evening and discussion.

HKHTC and our guest for the Holocaust Memorial Day event this year continue to receive local media coverage, including this feature article (click here) and this video (click here) which appear in the Next Magazine and its digital platform.