Holocaust survivor Noemi Ban to speak at WWU April 12

Noémi Ban, a local Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, will share her story at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 12 – Yom Ha Shoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day – in Arntzen 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 WWU students.

Reservations for her hour-long 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 Web site for the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Ethnocide Education (NWCHGEE) at Western at http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/NWCHE/. Click on the “Noemi Ban Reservation” link on the left hand margin and be sure to include the number of seats requested.

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 Education, Equity, and Diversity, both at Woodring College of Education.

“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 during the event. Due to time constraints, all other questions will be answered on the new NWCHGHEE Web site feature “Ask Noémi” at http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/NWCHE/.

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.

Ban retired as a teacher in 1989, so she could devote her time to education 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.

“My Name is Noémi,” a film biography of Ban, recently debuted at WWU’s Performing Art Center. The film was produced by Western Washington University 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.

For more information about this event, contact the NWCHGEE at nwche@wwu.edu or telephone the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity at (360) 650-3827.