Celebrating Our 40th Anniversary
We are hosting a 40th Anniversary Gala on September 16th and would love to have you attend! It begins with an extended cocktail hour on the patio, followed by a one-hour program featuring special recognitions of those who found and built this aspirational non-profit. We will hear from our Gerda Haas Award recipient, Maulian Bryant, Executive Director of the Wabanaki Alliance, and Jack Montgomery will be signing his new book, "From the Holocaust to Maine: Testimonies of Survivors" Then we’ll enjoy dinner, live music, dancing, and a silent auction. We’re honored to welcome many of our original founders and those who carried the mission and vision forward, including Holocaust survivors, former directors, past award recipients, donors and longtime friends of the HHRC. Learn more and buy tickets here: Gala celebration here.
Yellow Ribbons for Our Loved Ones
This community project was created by a mother-daughter duo, Camille and Anya Davidson. Camille and Anya, dual citizens of Israel and America, were inspired by the stitch them home idea, a community-led project using knitted or crocheted yellow ribbons to call for the release of the hostages taken from Israel on October 7th, 2023. After months of feeling hopeless and distraught, they decided to channel their sorrow into creativity and advocacy. The exhibit is to bring awareness to the continued plight of the hostages and their families after nearly 2 years. There are still 50 hostages in Gaza—on display are their pictures along with a few words about them. Anya and Camille launched this project by gathering friends to knit and crochet while learning more about the hostages and the efforts to bring them home. Each ribbon is lovingly created with them in mind. We cannot forget about them and their families.
The Ravensbrück Series
Come experience this moving exhibit at the Michael Klahr Center. The Ravensbrück Series by the late Brenda Bettinson is a collection of 17 paintings created with acrylic paint and pencil on board, panel and fabric. Brenda was moved to create the works after she read Sarah Helm’s book, Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women about the enslavement, beatings, torture, rape, starvation, surgical experimentation and murder of the women at the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück Series will be exhibited until September 5th, 2025.
2025 Gerda Haas Award Winner
The HHRC is delighted to announce the 2025 recipient of the Gerda Haas Award for Excellence in Human Rights Education and Leadership is Maulian Bryant. Maulian is Executive Director of the Wabanaki Alliance, where she has worked since its founding in 2020. She is an outspoken advocate on the issue of derogatory mascots and imagery. Her advocacy resulted in the state of Maine enacting laws that changed the annual Columbus Day in October to Indigenous Peoples Day and prohibited public schools from using derogatory mascots. Her other passion is finding ways to strengthen and expand programs that help to preserve and teach the customs and traditions of the Penobscot people. She is a loving mother to three daughters and centers them in much of her work making the state and country a safer and more equitable place for her children and all tribal people. She believes in leading with love and making progress by finding shared humanity. We hope you will attend our 40th Anniversary Gala in September when Maulian will be our Keynote Speaker.
2025 Student Award Winners
We are delighted to share that this year's Spiegel Scholarship has been awarded to Kelly Malcolm. Following the scholarship committee's thoughtful review and selection, Tam had the pleasure of notifying Kelly of the good news. A recent graduate of Ellsworth High School, Kelly will be attending Maine Maritime Academy this fall, where she plans to major in International Business and Logistics. We’re also proud to announce the recipient of the Schlossberger Award is Braydan Benton. Braydan is a rising freshman at Poland Regional High School and submitted his award-winning entry, a compelling one-person performance on the Americans with Disabilities Act, while attending Bruce M. Whittier Middle School.
Every Teacher A Leader Conference
The first annual Every Teacher a Leader Summit took place at Colby College on July 30-August 1st. Teachers across Maine came together to build community, attend workshops for and by Maine educators, and grow as leaders. The conference offered workshops centered around leading for innovation, for equity, through relationships, and leading with best practices in the classroom. The HHRC was invited to participate: Education Coordinator Erica Nadelhaft presented Hate Speech in Schools. This program addresses the rise of hate speech and symbols in schools and communities. Using the swastika and the Heil Hitler salute as a case study, the program first discusses the Nazi party’s use of symbols and what they represent in our schools and communities today. The program challenges participants to look at how hate symbols and speech are confronted in their classrooms and to consider the important role that they can play by speaking out. The program also considers the long-term trauma experienced by students who are targeted by hate speech and the important role that educators play in mitigating that harm. The program includes discussion of other types of hate speech frequently encountered in schools, such as racism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate, anti-immigrant hate, ableism, and misogyny. Eroica’s presentation spark a robust discussion.
HHRC Summer Seminars • A Through-Line for over 40 Years
On Sunday, July 29th, 1984, a 2-week seminar at Bowdoin College began with an opening address by the preeminent Holocaust scholar Dr. Raul Hilberg. By all accounts, the seminar was transformative and generative: it became the impetus for a group of people who had been there to create the HHRC. Three courses were offered: Holocaust and History, Holocaust and Literature, and Teaching the Holocaust. The days were filled with lectures and intense conversation. Evening activities included films, panel discussions, lectures, and socializing. All day long and into the evening participants discussed what they were experiencing, and brainstormed how to create a more peaceful and just world. Read more on our 40th Anniversary Timeline.
Forty years later, the tradition of Summer Seminars still thrives as a through-line, a core principal, a tradition and opportunity to help teachers help students become their very best selves by learning about history, the world, and their own ideas, feelings, and goals. This year was no exception. Twenty-eight educators took time from their precious summer break to gather together and learn, talk, explore, share, and reaffirm why they do this challenging, rewarding work. Guest presenters joined, sharing what they do toward the same goal: helping young people make sense of the world and their part in shaping its future. We are so proud to carry on this long and successful tradition, begun by our founders, of assisting educators in the crucial work of preparing the next generation for a complex, challenging, hopeful future. Read the participants feedback.
Design Proposals
As we commemorate our 40th anniversary, we are look back at the incredible amount of energy, innovation and passion from so many to create and build this organization. We are planning a gala event, creating a timeline, posting blogs from some of the interviews we've enjoyed, and spending time in the storage closet. One of the major achievements was of course building the Michael Klahr Center. This week Tam pulled out the storyboards of design submissions from architects around the world and put them up for display. It is fascinating—so many thoughtful, ambitious proposals. Choosing must have been challenging indeed. We encourage you to visit us and take a look at the many creative ideas on how to build a repository for stories, a cultural center, a place to gather that might be hopeful after the darkest of times. While you're in the Center you can see the permanent collection of Judith Glickman Lauder's moving photographs from her trips through Germany and Poland's concentration camps. And experience the voices and photographs of four Holocaust survivors: Michael Klahr, Tamara Fineberg, Gerda Haas and Manfred Kelman.
Exploring Juneteenth
Juneteenth commemorates the effective end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom, following the arrival of Union troops and the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. A few years ago we became curious about this important date, listened to a podcast, read some articles and essays, and discussed it as a group. Questions emerged. Why for so many years hadn’t people heard about something so important to Black Americans? Why wasn’t it taught in schools? What brought it into our national consciousness after 150 years, becoming a federal holiday in 2021? We each shared a ‘What surprised me most’ observation for discussion. In a spirit of humility, we shared our questions and eagerness to discover about this consequential holiday. Read it here.
Yom HaShoah
On Sunday, April 27th, forty-seven members of our community gathered in the Michael Klahr Center for a contemplative Yom HaShoah commemoration. With reverence, participants shared readings, poetry, prayer and music. Offerings included Reflection on the Holocaust and Antisemitism, a Prayer from Rabbi Lord Sacks, Lighting of the Memorial Candles, We Begin with Silence, a video on Jewish Life before the Holocaust, Naming the Survivors and Victims, El Malei Rachamim, A Prayer in Hebrew and English, Shema by Primo Levi, For All These Things I Weep, Eli, Eli by by Jacob Koppel Sandler, Yizkor by Abba Kovner, At My Bar Mitzvah–and His by Rabbi Harold Kahn, Joel the Redhead by Elie Wiesel, Simchat Torah by Elie Wiesel, Fear by Skylar Levin, And the World Was Silent by Elaine Katz, and excerpt from the Survivors’ Declaration, and the Mourner’s Kaddish. The weightiness of the occasion was softened by being together, in community. The program concluded with a time for reflection at the site just outside the building’s entrance, where earth from Auschwitz is interred. If you wish to read the remarks and readings offered, click here.
Were The House Still Standing
Your generous contribution supports our work: building brave and welcoming communities by promoting universal respect for human rights through education, outreach and cultural experiences. This ambitious goal takes many forms. We offer sixteen educational programs to Maine students, sponsor talks and performances, curate exhibits, house valuable archives, showcase multi-media stories from survivors, and invite all visitors into the beautiful Michael Klahr Center. To preserve the oral testimonies of Holocaust survivors and liberators living in Maine, In 2005 the HHRC commissioned Sculptor Robert Katz to create an 80-minute multimedia installation, a centerpiece of the Michael Klahr Center, entitled Were the House Still Standing. For 18 years visitors have been moved by the stories of personal trauma, tragedy, bravery and resilience told by the survivors, many founders of the HHRC. Now it needs a significant upgrade. We need donations and grants to fulfill this goal. Can you help us?. Please donate here.
Black Mainers: A History of Resistance and Resilience
We are excited to announce that our newest educational program, Black Mainers: A History of Resistance and Resilience, is complete and ready to bring into schools. The research, writing, slideshow creation, and piloting has taken almost a year—time well spent, and we are creating a lesson-plan booklet for teachers to use after our visit. This program looks at the period leading up to World War I. It is not meant to give a comprehensive history of the Black experience in Maine but rather a complement and supplement the work that teachers are already doing in their classrooms. The primary ideas that we hope students take away from this program center around Black Mainers persistence, resilience, and resistance to oppression by demonstrating that African Americans have actively resisted racism and inequity in their lives and throughout Maine’s history. This program does this by focusing on individuals and their stories.
The Archive Project
The HHRC has a longstanding and rich collection of artifacts related to the Holocaust and civil rights. Last year we began to archive these valuable objects, assigning each one a number and category, storing them in professional archive containers, and using protective display cases in the Michael Klahr Center for our visitors to enjoy without fear of causing damage to the artifacts. The next step, for which we received funding from the Sam L. Cohen Foundation, involves two separate and yet connected projects. The first is a workshop for teachers to familiarize themselves with the Holocaust artifacts that we have at the HHRC and how to use them (digitally) in their classrooms. The second involves creating individual programs that center on specific objects. So far we have written three: one is based around a child’s shoe found at one of the camps; one focuses on currency from the Lodz ghetto; and the third explores letters from a Berlin doctor Hans Muehsam written to his cousin in New York as he desperately sought help obtaining a visa to leave Germany and emigrate to the United States.
Hours & Directions
We are open from 8:00–4:00 Monday through Friday and welcome visitors.
Please call ahead to be sure we are open when you arrive. The Center calendar aligns with the University of Maine at Augusta, so check for holidays and inclement weather closures on the UMA website.
We are housed in The Michael Klahr Center located at the University of Maine, Augusta. Our address is 46 University Drive, Augusta, Maine. Click on the map image for a detailed map of the UMA campus.
From the South: Take I-295 N/US-1 North toward Augusta. Take exit 112A, stay right at the intersection to merge onto ME-8 South. Tavel 0.6 miles then turn right onto University Drive. At the top of hill, bear right and into the parking lot.
From the North: Take 95 South toward Augusta. Take exit 112, merge onto ME-8 South. Travel 0.7 miles then turn right onto University Drive. At the top of hill, bear right and into the parking lot.
For instructions to access the Michael Klahr Center by elevator, click here.
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