HCNZ sends NZ educators to Yad Vashem in Israel biannually for professional development and gives them support and follow up so that they can learn how to best teach the Holocaust across curriculae in schools around the country.
HCNZ also hosts events, screenings, commemorations and speakers to help further foster remembrance and understanding of the impact of the Holocaust and the lessons that are enduring. We advocate for Human Rights, promoting human rights education as the cornerstone of a liberal, democratic and inclusive society. We have recently launched a new initiative, ‘At the Forefront: Human Rights – The Human Rights Speaker Series’, which has Professor Gillian Triggs as its inaugural speaker in August 2018.
Our National Director of Education, Chris Harris, embarks on education outreach throughout New Zealand and members of our volunteer educational team also hold presentations to student and adult group’s off-site.
The Holocaust Center of New Zealand is also undertaking the continuation of a special project that began in Moriah College, the small primary school formerly located within the Wellington Jewish Community Center; The New Zealand Children’s Holocaust Memorial.
In 2008, Principal Justine Hitchcock and her primary school students (aged 5 – 12) initiated the collection of 1.5 million buttons in an attempt to comprehend and illustrate the sheer vastness of the number of children killed during the Holocaust and to build a memorial to them to ensure that the children that perished would never be forgotten. With buttons and support from around the world, the Moriah College children collected 1.5 million buttons which were entrusted to the Holocaust Center to turn into a memorial, fulfilling their goal after the school sadly closed down. The design of the Memorial incorporates a selection of twelve variously sized ‘nesting tables’, the first and smallest table holding a single candle, the next a single button, representing one child. Following on, each unit increases in size and volume of buttons, forming an emotional and poignant display. In conjunction, but separate to the memorial, there will be an educational component, providing engaging historical and contemporary contextual material. The memorial will travel throughout New Zealand and will eventually become a permanent fixture in the future.
This year HCNZ has brought the Anne Frank Exhibition - 'Let Me Be Myself, The Life Story of Anne Frank' - from Amsterdam to New Zealand, with the help of many generous sponsors. Having been shown in Auckland and now in Wellington, it will travel to many cities and regional areas around the country,= between 2018 and 2020. Bringing the Anne Frank exhibition to NZ is an important way to illustrate the Holocaust, especially as Anne Frank's story resonates across age groups. The story of Anne is not just of one individual, but of a young person who suffered at the hands of the Nazis who had insight into how we should treat each other, and the messages Anne writes about are some of the same issues young people experience today, most evidently as bullying. For older generations who grew up on her story it is one they remember fondly and continue to relate to, many of them having their own memories and experiences during WW2. This exhibition not only gives the visitor knowledge of the events of Anne’s life and of WW2; it contains a chapter in which young people of today address subjects like identity, exclusion and discrimination with trained local secondary school pupils as Peer Guides. The exhibition aligns with the HCNZ Vision and illustrates the importance and power of individuals to speak up, advocate for others and affect change for a better, inclusive society.
HCNZ fosters national and international relations between other Holocaust-related organizations and works with many National and local organizations including embassies in Wellington. We have positive relationships with the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, Human Rights Commission and local and central government.
Our challenges
Being a not-for-profit, non-government funded registered charity, funding is an area of challenge and we are fortunate to have some regular generous donors and supporters.