Holocaust Survivor Carla Peperzak Featured GU Event
Sept. 8 evening presentation includes Carla Peperzak as part of the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibit at GU’s Foley Library
Holocaust survivor and Spokane resident Carla Peperzak will join several Gonzaga University historians and representatives of Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity to present “Remembering Our Past to Inform Our Future” tonight (Sept. 8) from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Hemmingson Ballroom.
The event is hosted by Associate Provost and Dean of Libraries Paul Bracke.
“For our students and the greater Spokane community to hear directly from a Holocaust survivor like Carla Peperzak, as well experts on that dark period of history from our own campus as well as the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle, is an incredible opportunity,” said Bracke, according to GU media advisory SpokaneFāVS received on Sept. 6. “There is nothing like hearing about history from those who lived it, and we’re honored to have Carla Peperzak join us to share her story.”
The evening presentation is tied to the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibit currently on display at GU’s Foley Library through Oct. 7.
Gonzaga’s library is one of just 50 U.S. sites selected to host this exhibition that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.
The order of the evening, according to GU’s website, will be as follows:
- Welcome and introduction, Rabbi Elizabeth Goldstein Ph.D.
- A message from the Offices of the U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref
- Historical overview and context, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, GU History
- Brief Remarks from Holocaust Center for Humanity, Seattle, Paul Regelbrugge
- Interview of Featured Guest Carla Peperzak, Julia Thompson
- Closing, “What this history means for us today,” Dr. Kristine Hoover, Gonzaga Center for the Study of Hate
Tickets are free and are available for pickup at the Hemmingson Center welcome desk.
For more information on the Americans and the Holocaust exhibit—visiting hours, exhibit locations and parking—and the “Remembering Our Past to Inform Our Future” discussion, please visit gonzaga.edu/holocaustexhibit.
SpokaneFāVS hosted Peperzak as a Coffee Talk panelist for their “Forgive or Forget” discussion on August 5, 2017. She was also featured on January 9, 2019, in the SpokaneFāVS article about her memoir, “The Keys of My Life.”
