Holocaust Survivor Noémi Ban to Speak at Western Washington University Nov. 9

Western Washington University’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity will host award-winning teacher and Holocaust survivor Noémi Ban from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9 in Arntzen Hall 100.

Ban will speak at Western on the 78th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, “The Night of Broken Glass,” a wave of violent, government-sponsored anti-Jewish attacks in Nazi Germany, annexed Austria, and the Sudetenland on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and pre-registration is required; reservations can be made at https://wp.wwu.edu/raywolpowinstitute/kristallnacht-commemoration/, by calling Courtney Baxter at (360) 650-4000 or by e-mailing her at courtney.baxter@wwu.edu.

Ban’s story is one of loss, tragedy, resiliency, hope, and inspiration. Ban lost her mother, grandmother, and younger sister and brother in the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center, and worked at a bomb factory in a sub-camp of Buchenwald. After the Holocaust, she was a witness to the 1956 Soviet repression of the anti-communist uprising in Hungary.

She is the author of the book “Sharing is Healing,” and her experiences are documented in the 2007 film “My Name is Noémi.” Ban has received Honorary Doctorates from Western and Gonzaga University and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 Daughters of the American Revolution Americanism Award and the 2003 Washington Education Association’s Human and Civil Rights Award.

Ban will be available for a question-and-answer session and book signing at the end of the event. Free public event parking will be available in lot 12A - formerly the “gravel lot,” but now paved - on South Campus.

For more information on Ban’s lecture, contact Courtney Baxter at Western Washington University’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at (360) 650-4000.