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Art Exhibitions, Informative Lectures and Films Teach Lessons of the Holocaust During Holocaust Education Week

The legacy of the Holocaust will be considered from cultural, scholarly and personal perspectives through a series of enlightening film presentations, lectures and community discussions during Holocaust Education Week, February 22-26, at various locations throughout Miami-Dade County.

Holocaust Education Week is a community-wide program of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, a Committee of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. All events are free of charge and open to the public. Due to limited seating, persons wishing to attend Holocaust Education Week events are encouraged to make advance reservations online or call 305.538.1663.


Opening Day Exhibition: The Holocaust: How Was It Humanly Possible?
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Monday, February 22, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., FIU College of Architecture + The Arts, Miami Beach Urban Studios, 420 Lincoln Road, Suite 440, Miami Beach

(The exhibition will remain on display through March 4, 2016, 9 AM – 5 PM. Closed Saturday/Sunday, February 27-28.) The perpetrators of the Holocaust and their collaborators committed extraordinary crimes. We continue, 71 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, to ask: Were these people aberrations or were they ordinary people simply reacting to extraordinary circumstances? The Holocaust is part of a history that demands the attention of everyone who is part of the human race. This exhibit, “How Was It Humanly Possible?” presented by the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, focuses on the individual perpetrators, the foot soldiers of the Nazis’ genocidal policies. The plan to murder the Jews was conceived by a small circle of dedicated Nazis. In order to implement their plan, however, they required the collaboration of the masses.

Developed by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem and sponsored by the American Society for Yad Vashem. The Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach is pleased to host the premiere in the first city of this important traveling exhibition.


The Holocaust: How Was It Humanly Possible?
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Monday, February 22, 2 p.m, FIU College of Architecture + The Arts, Miami Beach Urban Studios, 420 Lincoln Road, Suite 440, Miami Beach

Keynote and tour by Dr. Marlene W. Yahalom
This exhibition details the dramatic theme of the Holocaust and the factors leading up to how the Holocaust happened. The planned destruction of the Jews of Europe was conceived by a small circle of dedicated Nazis, aided by many collaborators. Who were they?

Dr. Marlene W. Yahalom, Director of Education for the American Society for Yad Vashem, will give the opening keynote address and lead a personal tour of this fascinating exhibition.


Film Screening: Survivor, with Post-Film Discussion and Survivor Panel
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Tuesday, February 23, 11:15 a.m., Miami-Dade College—Homestead Campus, Building E, Room F222, 500 College Terrace | Homestead
The South Florida premiere of the new Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach educational film features local Holocaust survivors telling of their experiences before, during and after World War II. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Henry Flescher and David Mermelstein, two survivors featured in the film, and moderated by Professor Randall Kaufman.

Randall Kaufman is a Professor of History and Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences at Miami-Dade College’s Homestead Campus. For the past eight years, he has led MDC’s Holocaust Education Program and has facilitated the participation of over 25,000 students in community programs on the Holocaust and genocide.


Primo Levi: The Saved Word
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Tuesday, February 23, 7 p.m., FIU College of Architecture + The Arts, Miami Beach Urban Studios 420 Lincoln Road, Suite 440, Miami Beach

An examination of the life and works of the distinguished, thought-provoking writer and Italian Holocaust survivor, Primo Levi. Through readings from If This Is a Man, The Truce and The Drowned and the Saved, we will follow Levi’s human and intellectual trajectory and examine his role as a witness to the Holocaust and as a critical author of our times.

Dr. Nicola Gavioli is Assistant Professor of Portuguese at Florida International University and a specialist in war and witness literature. He is currently researching Primo Levi’s body of work.


Film Screening: Numbered (Hebrew with English Subtitles)
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Wednesday, February 24, 7 p.m., Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, 1933-1945 Meridian Avenue, Miami Beach
Most Auschwitz prisoners were murdered directly when they arrived. Of the prisoners sent to work, almost 400,000 had numbers tattooed on their arms. Very few are alive today. This incredibly emotional and powerful film explores the relationship survivors, their children and grandchildren have with their numbers today. Post-film discussion will be led by Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Chairperson of the Holocaust Education Committee of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach and Miami-Dade Schools Coordinator of Holocaust Education.

Dr. Kassenoff is a tireless and dedicated educator who speaks nationally and internationally about the meaning of the Holocaust during our lifetime. She is a child survivor.


Defeating Hitler’s Final Solution: Preserving Yiddish Culture and Language Today
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Thursday, February 25, 7 p.m., Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, 1933-1945 Meridian Avenue , Miami Beach

Keeping the Yiddish language alive is one of the most powerful ways to defeat the Nazi goal of “The Final Solution.” Yiddish enables us to enter the doors of a magnificent literature and culture that helps us understand the soul of the Jewish people of pre-war Eastern Europe. Professor Riva Ginsburg will explore the history, humor and wisdom of this language in addition to exploring where Yiddish is today and its future.

Riva Ginsburg was born in a displaced persons camp in Fahrenvald, Germany, after the Holocaust. She has taught Yiddish language and culture at Binghamton University of New York State and presently teaches at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Her expertise focuses on Yiddish culture, Jewish Resistance and the generation after the Holocaust.


Holocaust Education Week is a community-wide program of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach in cooperation with: American Society for Yad Vashem • City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council • FIU College of Architecture + The Arts | Miami Beach Urban Studios • FIU Center for Humanities • Miami Dade College • Miami-Dade County Public Schools Department of Social Sciences • With special thanks to the Florida Department of Education.

Holocaust Education Week is in memory of Auschwitz survivor Siggi B. Wilzig, his wife, Naomi Wilzig, and is donated by their children, Ivan, Sherry and Alan.

For more information about Holocaust Education Week and to register, visit holocaustmemorialmiamibeach.org or call 305.538.1663.