More than 600 students and teachers from 42 schools in the Westchester County and Fairfield County area attended the annual Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) High School Human Rights Institute virtual event March 18. The event featured intimate talks and testimonials by Holocaust survivor Judith Altmann and former White Supremacist Derek Black. Established through partnerships between the HHREC and area schools the event served as an educational platform to promote further awareness of human rights issues and provide instruction for students on how to empower themselves to take action in their schools and communities. The HHREC Student Institute included workshops led by experienced student facilitators to encourage frank discussions.
The event commenced with a welcome by Julie Scallero, co-director, HHREC; and Executive Director Millie Jasper.
Featured speaker Black is the son of Don Black, the founder of the Stormfront online community and godson of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. His talk focused on human rights abuses and injustices, and the importance of youthful leadership in confronting prejudice and discrimination.
A one-hour presentation and Q&A with Altmann who spoke about her story of survival, as she recounted the horrors of the Holocaust from her time at the Auschwitz concentration camp, surviving a “death march” that ended in a concentration camp and her indomitable will to live, as she eventually became a proud citizen of the United States, concluded the event.
