Holocaust survivor Noémi Ban to speak Nov. 12 and 13 at Western

Noémi Ban, a local Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, will share her story from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12, and Thursday, Nov. 13, in Arntzen Hall 100 at Western Washington University.

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 Western students.

Reservations for her talk are mandatory because of space restrictions, but Ban’s speech is free to the public. To attend the talk, please reserve seating as soon as possible by visiting the website for the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Ethnocide Education at Western. Click on the “Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education” link on the left hand margin and be sure to include the number of seats requested when making a reservation.

Ban will follow her talk with a question-and-answer period and then a book signing. Ban’s speech is sponsored by Woodring College’s NWCHGEE and its Center for Education, Equity, and Diversity.

“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.

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.

“My Name is Noémi,” a film biography of Ban, debuted at Western’s Performing Arts Center in Jan. 2009. The film was produced by Western’s Associate Professor of Theater Jim Lortz, and tells of then Noémi Schonberger who was taken from her home in Debrecen, Hungary to Auschwitz in 1944 and her return to the concentration camp in 2007.

For more information or ADA accommodations, please contact the Center for Education, Equity, and Diversity at 360-650-3827.