​Class by HSB Speaker offered At the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI):  

"It Did Not Start with Gas Chambers"

Mondays, September 11th–November 27th

Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3639 Old Chapel Hill Rd, Durham

The 10-week course on the Holocaust will be taught by HSB Speaker Sheldon Bleiweiss.

Course Description: If you are bothered by seeing biased behavior and increased vitriolic rhetoric towards each other, this class is for you.  Learning about the Holocaust might help us understand why this happens and how dangerous such behavior can become.  In this interactive course we take an in-depth look at how and why the Holocaust came about, the roles people played, and the events that led up to the “final solution” --the extermination of Jews.  Students will hear stories from survivors and stories about the challenges faced by the instructors' parents who survived in the open using identities as non-Jews.  Students will also hear about the instructor's journey to Poland and the death camps and what it was like "growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust.”  We will examine our own attitudes and behaviors and look at what we can do to make a difference.  By exploring human behavior then and now, we hope to answer: “How was the Holocaust possible?” and “Could it happen again?"  

Cost for the class is $90. Registration opens August 7th. For more information see: https://learnmore.duke.edu/olli​​

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