Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide Stories of Resilience: Learning from Survivors of the Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

“Stories of Resilience: Learning from Survivors of the Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda”.

Dr. Brown will focus on testimony excerpts of survivors who describe life after their traumatic experiences of the Holocaust and genocide, and connect to how those lessons of resilience resonate even today.

Sarah Brown, PhD:
American Jewish Committee
Director on Rwanda/ with work on Holocaust
Author of “Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Perpetrators and Rescuers.”
Co-editor of the Routledge Handbook on Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide.

Tali Nates

Tali Nates is the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF). She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust and genocide education, memory, reconciliation, and human rights. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. Tali has been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films, published many articles and contributed chapters to different books among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), Conceptualizing Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023).

In 2021 she was part of the 12-member Expert Group of the Malmö Forum, serving in an advisory capacity to the Secretariat of the Malmö Forum on their programme on Holocaust remembrance, education and actions to combat antisemitism. Tali serves on many Advisory and Academic Boards including that of the Contested Histories Initiative, the Interdisciplinary Academic Journal of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and the Academic Advisory Group of the School of Social and Health Sciences, Monash University (IIEMSA), South Africa.

In 2010, Tali was chosen as one of the top 100 newsworthy and noteworthy women in

South Africa by the Mail & Guardian newspaper and won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic), the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021) and the Goethe Medal (2022, Germany).

Sara E. Brown, Ph.D

Sara E. Brown, Ph.D. is the Regional Director of American Jewish Committee San Diego. She holds the first Ph.D. in comparative genocide studies from the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. She was a director of Chhange, a Holocaust, human rights, and genocide education non-profit and managed post-secondary education programming for USC Shoah Foundation. Sara has taught courses on history, human rights,

and mass violence, conducted genocide-related research in Rwanda, and served as a project coordinator in refugee camps in Tanzania. Sara is the author of Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Perpetrators and Rescuers and the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook on Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide. She has consulted for a number of international organizations, including the United Nations.

In the midst of uncertainty and shadows, our series on resistance stands as a beacon of hope.

Over the course of our 8-part series, we aim to shed light on the stories of individuals and communities courageously facing prevailing challenges. Our mission is to create a space where narratives of resilience take center stage, unveiling the indomitable strength of the human spirit in adversity.

Thank you to our Partner: