Editors: Please include information on reservations in any media mention of this event, as Noémi Ban’s talks typically are full and people in the past have shown up without reservations, expecting to be admitted.
Media-only contact: Ray Wolpow at Ray.Wolpow@wwu.edu or (360) 650-3337
Nov. 9 is the 71th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” a night during which the SA, SS and the Nazi party coordinated the damage to and destruction of thousands of synagogues, Jewish businesses and homes. This night of anti-Jewish terror and violence was the beginning of the Holocaust.
Ban will speak about how she lost most of her family, and how she shares her story to inspire current and future generations to prevent similar genocides from happening again.
“Your generation may be the last one able to listen to a survivor,” Ban has told WWU students.
Reservations for her hour-long talk are mandatory and free to the public. To make your reservation please visit the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education (NWCHGEE) Web site at: http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/NWCHE/.
Ban will follow her talk with a question-and-answer period and then a book signing. Ban’s speech is sponsored by the NWCHGEE and the Center for Educational Pluralism, both at Woodring College of Education at Western.
“I would hope that people who come would think about what questions might be asked by future generations in 40 or 50 years, and that … they would ask those questions now,” said. Ray Wolpow, NWCHGEE director.
The audience may write questions for Ban on note cards and submit them to Wolpow, and Ban will answer as many as possible those during the event. Due to time constraints, all other questions will be answered on the NWCHGEE Web site feature “Ask Noémi.”
Ban retired as a teacher in 1989 so she could devote her time to educating students about the Holocaust. She is a recipient of the 1998 Golden Apple Award and has spoken almost 300 times in the past three years alone.
Ban authored “Sharing is Healing: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story,” which tells how she survived the Holocaust. Both the book and Jim Lortz’s film “My Name is Noémi” will be available for purchase at the event. The film elegantly portrays Ban’s return to
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