Upstander Speaker Series

Mike Kim: Human Trafficking Expert and Award-Winning Author

Thursday, November 17, 2016

North Korea is the least free country in the world with a repressive hereditary political leadership and one of the world’s worst human rights records. This has led to incredible suffering by its people. Before its borders with China were fortified in 2010 and 2011, tens of thousands of North Koreans escaped into China. If caught by Chinese authorities they are returned to North Korea where they are imprisoned or executed for treason. Females make up 70% of the refugees, and they are frequently trafficked as prostitutes or sold as brides. If returned to North Korea, many women who became pregnant while in China are required by their government to undergo abortions.

On New Year’s Day in 2003, Mike Kim gave up his financial planning business in Chicago, Illinois and booked a one-way ticket to China. Once there he found himself drawn to help North Korean refugees. While living near the China-North Korea border, Kim operated undercover as a North Korean taekwondo student training under two well-known masters from Pyongyang. From there he used a 6,000-mile underground railroad to lead many North Korean refugees and sex trafficking victims to safety in Southeast Asia.

His memoir, Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World’s Most Repressive Country, describes his harrowing experiences at the China-North Korean border. Kim also founded Crossing Borders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to North Korean refugees. Crossing Borders organizers testified at a congressional hearing on the issue of counteracting human trafficking in China, and it regularly contributes to the U.S. State Department’s “Annual Trafficking in Persons Report”.

Crossing Borders provides medical care, food, shelter, and counseling to North Korean refugees. The organization also houses abandoned North Korean children in orphanages and provides extensive counseling and care. Crossing Borders works with refugees who live in fear that the police will find them and send them back to North Korea.

Kim’s fearless efforts to rescue those who are denied basic human rights demonstrates the behavior of an Upstander; he does not stand by while others suffer. This is why we honor Mike Kim as part of our 2016 Upstander Speaker Series.

The Upstander Speaker Series event will take place on Thursday, November 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Communities Foundation of Texas, 5500 Caruth Haven Lane, Dallas, TX 75225. The VIP reception with Mike Kim begins at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.com. $10 general Admission; FREE for members; $20 for VIP Members; $30 for non-members.

Sponsor: The Dallas Morning News

Bergen-Belsen was one of Nazi Germany’s most infamous concentration camps. Inmates were subject to inhumane treatment; starvation was rampant as were unsanitary conditions which led to the spread of disease. Anne Frank and her sister Margot were victims of a typhus epidemic at Bergen-Belsen. Both perished a few months before liberation of the camp by British forces on April 15, 1945.

Shortly after liberation the British burned the camp to the ground to halt the spread of disease.  Survivors were relocated to former military barracks close by. There they were disinfected, clothed and fed. They insisted on retaining the name of the original camp, and it became the known as the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons (DP) Camp. By 1946 the camp housed more than 11,000 Jews, making it the largest DP camp in Europe. It was the only exclusively Jewish DP camp in the British zone of Germany.

Rebirth After the Holocaust: Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, 1945-1950 recalls the true story of Jewish survivors who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust and maintained a desire for life.

Eager to regain control over their lives, the Bergen-Belsen survivors formed a camp committee three days after liberation. The committee soon organized cultural, religious and political activities for the survivors.

While waiting to learn the fates of relatives and friends, many Jews yearned for companionship and began creating new families. Almost twenty marriages took place every day. Weddings were social activities that involved the participation of others with professional skills. Over 2,000 children were born in the camp. Survivors and service providers established an elementary school, a high school, an orphanage and a yeshiva.

By the middle of 1950, the majority of the Jewish displaced persons had emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada and South Africa with a small number remaining in Germany.

Rebirth After the Holocaust, organized by the World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Associations, is presented by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religious Museum.

September is a busy month at the Museum. We’re saying goodbye to the heat and hello to autumn with five special events centered around the International Day of Peace—celebrated annually on September 21st around the world.

Each week in September, the Museum will host a special guest to talk about his or her experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust.

Events kick off on Sunday, September 4th, as Holocaust survivor Jack Repp tells his incredible, true story of fighting in the resistance and living in various ghettos and concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Dachau, and Kielce. Jack will speak at 12:30 PM; you don't need a ticket to hear the speaker, but admission is required to tour the Museum.

On Sunday, September 11th, Magie Furst will talk about life as a Kindertransport refugee and how Jewish children were rescued from the Nazis and brought to the United Kingdom. Maggie will speak at 12:30 PM; you don't need a ticket to hear the speaker, but admission is required to tour the Museum.

The Museum will officially recognize the International Day of Peace on Sunday, September 18th, with its main event of the season when it hosts three speakers who will tell their dramatic stories of endurance and survival. Survivors Max Glauben, Fred Strauss, and Jack Repp will speak at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM, respectively. Museum admission will be free on this day; however, space will be limited.

Holocaust refugee Fred Strauss will return the following Sunday, September 25th, to talk about growing up in Germany and surviving the Holocaust. Fred will speak at 12:30 PM; you don't need a ticket to hear the speaker, but admission is required to tour the Museum.

Please note that two docents will be available to provide guided tours following the speaker on September 4, 11, and 25. The tours will start around 1:45, immediately following the speaker. Docents will guide groups of 15 people each. A sign-up sheet for the tours will be provided at the front desk. Access to group tours is on a first-come, first-served basis.

On Tuesday, September 27th, the Museum will wrap up the month with a discussion on the history of anti-semitism, hosted by Dr. Sara Abosch, Senior Director of Education at the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance. “Lunch and Learn: Historical Lessons” begins at 11:30 AM and is open and free to the public. RSVP is required through Eventbrite.

(Article written by Dallas Holocaust Museum contributing writer Chris Kelly)

In the early 1990s, with the collapse of Communism, Yugoslavia began to break apart as ethnic and religious groups sought to create their states in the territory. The war that ensued over Sarajevo, a city that exemplified the former country’s multi-ethnic culture and identity, was emblematic of the region’s descent into civil war.

Bosnian Serbs, seeking to form a stronger Serbian nation, attacked Bosnia and began a policy of ethnic cleansing. In the following months, Serb forces raided Muslim and Croat homes. Many of the men, interred in prison camps and tortured and killed. Forced into detention centers, women endured repeated rape and brutality.

Bosnian Serb forces blockaded Sarajevo, cutting residents off from water, food, electricity, medicine and other supplies. The situation in Sarajevo was dire.

Survival in Sarajevo: La Benevolencija tells the story of the Jewish humanitarian organization that provided critical relief at the height of the conflict. Led by Holocaust survivors and their children, La Benevolencija housed itself in Sarajevo’s Jewish community center and provided medicine, food and community to Sarajevans trapped in the city. The agency’s pharmacy, mail service, and soup kitchen served all comers, regardless of their religious belief or ethnic background.

The siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces was the longest siege of a city in the history of modern warfare. La Benevolencija helped ease conditions for the besieged through its efforts and built community during some of Sarajevo’s darkest hours.

Based on the book by journalist and photographer Edward Serotta, Survival in Sarajevo: Jews, Bosnia and the Lessons of the Past, this exhibition covers the history of the Jews in the Balkans from 1492 to 1941 before turning to the Bosnian War of the 1990s and the story of La Benevolencija.

Survival in Sarajevo: La Benevolencija will be available to view at the Museum until September 18, 2016.

Film Screening – Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave

In connection with our special gallery exhibit, the Museum will screen the film Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave, which provides a detailed visual documentation of the Bosnian-Serbian conflict on Thursday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum Theater. The BBC documentary Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave examines the massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and its aftermath.

Srebrenica, the world’s first United Nations Safe Area, was the site of the worst genocide in Europe since World War II. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army occupied the intimate spa town and took over the surrounding region. Muslim residents were forcibly separated from their neighbors and families. Over a five-day period, more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were systematically murdered by the Bosnian Serb soldiers in schools, fields, and warehouses.

Narrated by Bill Moyers, Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave provides first-hand accounts told by survivors and witnesses of the 1995 Bosnian massacre as well as interviews with UN soldiers and government officials.

Warning: Due to some graphic content, this film may not be suitable for younger viewers.

RSVP required. Please visit Eventbrite to reserve your seat. For more information go to www.DallasHolocaustMuseum.com.

Sponsor: Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport

During the Holocaust, most people turned a blind eye to the discrimination, persecution and genocide of the 6 million Jews by the Nazis. Explain how and why bystanders, as the majority of society, made the choice to support the Nazi regime and their spread of hatred.

The topic above served as the question in an essay contest for 7^th-grade students attending the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy. Sponsored by Fox Rothschild and the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, students from the all-male campus wrote about the dangers of bystander behavior.

The Fox Rothschild Essay Contest challenged students to be objective and determine why the events of the Holocaust occurred and what people could have done to prevent it from happening. By thoroughly exploring the actions and events of the past, the students made connections to other genocides in modern warfare, and they learned the powerful effects of Upstander behavior.

The Dallas Holocaust Museum’s mission is to teach the history of the Holocaust and advance human rights to combat prejudice, hatred, and indifference. The core exhibit of the Museum focuses on events that depict wartime heroism such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the successful attempt by partisans who stopped the 20th Deportation Train from Belgium and freed 221 Jews. These events demonstrate that it is possible to help others in the face of unimaginable horror.

The panel of judges included the Museum’s Assistant Director of Education, Dr. Charlotte Decoster; Dr. Neena Biswas; Gerardo Galvan; Jack Baum; Dodee Frost Crockett; Mark Alfieri; Jamal Carty and Betsey Hecksel.  

Prizes were awarded on Thursday, May 10, 2016, at the Jewish Community Center located at 7900 Northaven Road, Dallas, TX 75230. The finalists, Ivan Leiva, Marcus Johnson and Pablo Torres, along with their parents met Fox Rothschild’s Dallas Office Managing Partner Clint David, the Museum’s President/CEO Mary Pat Higgins, and several of the Museum’s Board of Directors.

Ivan Leiva won first place in the contest and read his essay aloud.

The first place contestant received a $200 savings bond and a $100 Barnes and Noble gift card. The second place contestant won a $100 Barnes and Noble gift card, and the third place contestant won a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card. All prizes were donated by Fox Rothschild.

For more information, please visit www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org or call (214) 741-7500.

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