Celebrate 90th Birthday for Armin Krauss, Holocaust Survivor
The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center (HDEC) recently hosted its Student Awareness Day, where hundreds of Dade County High School students met to learn the dangers of hatred and bullying. The very serious and vital event had an incredible moment of celebration and joy when everyone in the auditorium came together to sing Happy Birthday to Holocaust Survivor Armin Krauss who was celebrating his 90th birthday. Armin Krauss is a very active member of the HDEC’s Speaker’s Bureau and devotes his time speaking to students from every walk of life about the lessons and legacy of the Holocaust so that they will understand the meaning of “never again” to anyone, any place and anytime.
The purpose of Student Awareness Days is to connect students with Survivors in order to combat prejudice and bigotry through education with round-table discussions, lectures, and video presentations.
“The importance of this event is unparalleled,” explains HDEC President Rositta Kenigsberg. “It makes a tremendous impact to have Holocaust Survivors spend an entire day face to face with high school students, sharing their stories because they don’t want their past to become the students’ future. It was especially meaningful to celebrate Armin, who is such an important part of the work we do, and to honor him with so many people who love and appreciate him.”
Krauss survived a German ghetto, then later the Magdeburg barracks of the Terezin concentration camp, followed by Auschwitz, finally being liberated from Buchenwald, April, 1945. He offers lectures and presentations describing his experience and educating the public.
Kenigsberg added that survivors want to teach the Holocaust, because they have witnessed what prejudice, hatred and bigotry can do. “We all know that the number of hate groups and hate crimes and the rash of bullying and cyber-bullying are at an all-time high,” she noted. “We at the HDEC are making every effort to teach our students that promises of ‘Never Again’ are empty and meaningless if one remains silent and indifferent in the face of adversity,” continued Kenigsberg.
The HDEC hosts Student Awareness Day in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. The Center also provides teacher training and other educational resources to combat racism.
About the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center
The Holocaust Documentation & Education Center (HDEC) was founded in 1980 as a nonsectarian, nonprofit, multifaceted organization to preserve, protect and perpetuate the authentic memory of the Holocaust through Documentation, Commemoration and Education, so that the Legacy of the Holocaust will serve as an “Imperative to Remember.” Currently, in addition to the many documentation and educational outreach programs, efforts and events, the HDEC is focused on the Phase-II build out of South Florida’s first Holocaust Museum in Dania Beach, which will have exhibits in English and Spanish. The Museum, which is being designed by Patrick Gallagher, is being built out in the Center’s recently acquired new home and will take an interactive approach, featuring the latest 3D holographic technology. To learn more, please contact Rositta E. Kenigsberg at 954-929-5690 or Rositta@hdec.org.
