Resources for Holocaust Education in North Carolina

North Carolina has been in the forefront among the states in memorializing the Holocaust.  These efforts have educated the public to understand that the Holocaust was not a distant event but consequential here, too.  Indeed, one North Carolina native, Theresa Sternglanz, born in Tarboro in 1881, is counted among the six million Jews martyred.

In 1981 Governor James B. Hunt Jr. instituted the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, and four years later it became the first in the nation established by legislative decree.  The JHNC, in cooperation with the Council and the Holocaust Speakers Bureau, has developed a powerpoint presentation appropriate for students on “The Holocaust: A North Carolina Story.”

As survivors and eyewitnesses pass away, their descendants keep the memory alive and work to prevent its recurrence among any peoples.  The state includes an array of institutions dedicated to Holocaust education, research, and memorialization.

North Carolina Council on the Holocaust

The Council was established in 1981 by Governor James B. Hunt under the auspices of the Department of Public Instruction. In 1985 the General Assembly authorized it, the first legislature in the nation to create such a Council.

The Council offers lesson plans, guidebooks, teachers’ workshops, speakers, traveling exhibits, and trips to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.  It also sponsors an annual memorial ceremony. It is an indispensable source for Holocaust educators. Among its publications is Cecile Holmes White, Witnesses to the Horror: North Carolinians Remember the Holocaust, available online, which includes testimonies by liberators, survivors, and their children.

NCCAT Holocaust Education

Funded in part by the generous support of the Frank and Shelly Weiner Holocaust Education Teacher Training Endowment of NCCAT, NCCAT’s Holocaust Education Program provides opportunities for public school teachers to engage directly with survivors and with some of the most authoritative scholars in the field in the context of a carefully crafted learning community. Teachers grapple with ideas and concerns while building a strong network of like-minded colleagues. NCCAT offers educators the annual opportunity to attend “The Gathering of Holocaust Educators.” The purpose is to sustain a high level of commitment and excellence in the classroom.

Holocaust Speakers Bureau

Created in 2009 in Chapel Hill by children of survivors, The Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education of North Carolina offers resources for community events and teacher development. Its speakers include survivors, liberators, and Holocaust scholars. Its website includes video testimonies by survivors resident in North Carolina.

JCC Levine Butterfly Project

As part of a global project to create painted butterflies as a Holocaust memorial, this program includes educational programming focused on school children. Students paint a butterfly to commemorate a specific Holocaust victim, which are enshrined on a memorial in Shalom Park. The Project also includes speakers and educational outreach to the schools.

Out of the Fire!

A documentary film with interviews of sixteen North Carolina Holocaust emigres, survivors, and liberators produced by Darryl and Mary Freedman of Chapel Hill.

We Are Survivors

Survivors’ Testimonies and Biographies show how Jews in North Carolina have survived the Holocaust and its memories.

College Holocaust Programs and Archives