IHE/WPS/ESU2 brings back Holocaust survivor assemblies; Stories to be shared on stage March 19
Wahoo hosts second-generation survivor Jim Berk & third-generation survivor Sarah Kutler for renewed annual 'Week of Understanding' programs
Launch the media gallery 1 playerHolocaust second-generation survivor Jim Berk (pictured right) and third-generation survivor Sarah Kutler will be our featured speakers on Tuesday, March 19 (10:00-11:30 a.m. & 1:30-3:00 p.m.). WPS is pleased to once again work with ESU2 to host this annual event in recognition of the Week of Understanding, sponsored by the Institute for Holocaust Education in Omaha. Both sessions are open to the public.
"For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living ... To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."--Holocaust Survivor and American author Elie Wiesel
Wahoo Public Schools is pleased to once again work in cooperation with the Institute for Holocaust Education (Omaha) and Educational Service Unit 2 (Fremont) to host Holocaust survivor assemblies in recognition of this year's Week of Understanding.
On Tuesday, March 19, Wahoo Middle and High School students, along with 6-12 students across Nebraska, will have the opportunity to personally meet and hear from Jim Berk (who tells the life stories of Holocaust survivor mother Ilona Dorenter Berk), and Sarah Kutler (who tells the story of her grandmother Beatrice Karp, a Holocaust survivor who passed away in 2019 at age 87).
Our guests will be speaking live from the Wahoo Public Schools Performance-Learning Center. WMS/WHS students, along with students from other schools in the region, will attend these assemblies on site, and students from schools across the state will connect live from remote sites, via the school's YouTube channel.
This year two speakers will share their personal stories and respond to audience questions.
- Jim Berk will share his mother’s story during a morning presentation from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
- Third-generation survivor Sarah Kutler will share her grandmother’s story during an afternoon presentation from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.
(60 minutes of Survivor testimony will be followed by 30 minutes during which our speakers will respond to audience questions.)
Wahoo High School students will attend the morning assembly, and Wahoo Middle School students will attend the afternoon presentation. Community members are openly invited to attend these events as well, either in person, or via the YouTube live-stream (link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsAuQGa87easBGbGBy87vg).
ALL SCHOOLS that would like to participate in one or both of these events, on site or remotely, please click to register: REGISTRATION LINK
Now in its 14th year, this important IHE program began as an effort to bring first-hand Holocaust survivor and U.S. liberator testimony to schools across the metro, giving students the opportunity to hear this testimony while survivors and liberators are still here to tell their stories. For those survivors and liberators who are no longer with us, their families continue to keep their stories alive.
ESU 2 became involved with the Week of Understanding back in 2012, the program's second year. Since then, the geographic reach has expanded beyond metropolitan Nebraska schools to include not only live student audiences traveling to Wahoo, but also school audiences totaling thousands of students connected remotely from the rural east, central and panhandle regions of Nebraska.
"It is my hope that the primary, human experience of meeting and listening to survivors will give our young adults an understanding and an appreciation that cannot be gleaned from secondary source materials," said ESU 2 spokesperson Diane Wolfe. "More powerful, more compelling than photos, text or video is the face-to-face personal opportunity to visit with those individuals. Additionally, it is our hope that this encounter will underscore the importance of taking action to prevent social injustice long before it becomes a holocaust-scale mass human disaster."
IHE Executive Director Scott Littky also stressed the importance of keeping these voices in the spotlight, in hopes that such a tragic chapter of history is never repeated.
“As time takes us away from the Holocaust, it is even more critical to listen to the words of the witnesses,” commented Littky. “Their personal stories add a face and a name to a distant and somewhat incomprehensible event. Not all survivors can speak about their experiences. Some want only to remember their memories silently, but for some, there is a need to speak out. These individuals, and others like them, are the last to bear witness to the Holocaust. It has never been more important to listen to the words of this generation."
Again, all are invited to these sessions. If you represent a school, please register for these assemblies at the link above. If you are a community member (or if you have any questions), please register by contacting WPS Band Director Jason Smith at 402-443-4332, ext. 3302, or email jsmith@wahoowarriors.org.
About the Speakers
Jim Berk
Jim Berk, is the son of Ilona Dorenter Berk. Who in Jim’s words, “was a remarkable woman.” Tough, smart, resilient. She used all of those qualities, including some miracles, to survive the horror of 5 Nazi concentration camps. She eventually settled in Lincoln and carved out a brilliant dress making career. Her son, Jim Berk, a former tv & radio sportscaster now living in the Detroit area, tells her remarkable story in a poignant, powerful presentation.
Sarah Kutler
Sarah Kutler is the granddaughter of Survivor Beatrice Karp. “I tell this story in memory of my parents, Rosa and Mortiz Stern, and the six million Jews that died. I don't want the world to forget. It’s a lesson to the future and the future is in your hands. And it’s up to you to make sure nothing like the Holocaust will ever happen again” ~ as spoken by Bea.
Beatrice was born in 1932 in Lauterbach, Germany. She was 6-years-old when the Nazis took power. She survived the Gurs and Rivesaltes concentration camps, along with her younger sister. With the encouragement of her late husband Robert Pappenheimer, Bea went on to share her story with thousands of children and adults in order to remember the millions of innocent lives that were murdered, including her parents. Beatrice died in early March of 2019. Beatrice’s youngest grandchild, Sarah Kutler received her master’s degree in social work from the Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. When sharing Beatrice’s story, Sarah takes a social justice perspective on how everyday individuals can engage in introspection, empathy, and social justice to ensure that a tragedy like the Holocaust will never happen again.