Annual Wallenberg Dinner and Lecture Series

Please join us for the Nordic Heritage Museum's 2011 Raoul Wallenberg Dinner and Lecture Series, cosponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and Washington State Jewish Historical Society. The dinner will be on Tuesday, June 14 at 5:30pm and the lectures will be on Tuesdays, May 24, and May 31 at 7pm at the Nordic Heritage Museum.

This annual event was initiated by Washington State Senator Ken Jacobsen in honor of Swedish diplomat and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, whose actions saved thousands of lives during World War II. We are honored to host as our keynote speaker the distinguished Hubert G. Locke, Professor and Dean Emeritus of the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs. Professor Locke is a co-founder of the Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, and is a member of the Committee on Church Relations for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He will reflect on the character of individuals who risk personal safety to help others.

Reservations: Please make reservations no later than June 10. Contact 206-789-5707 ext. 10 or rsvp [at] nordicmuseum [dot] org.

Cost for dinner: $45 for Museum members & members of sponsor organizations, $50 for non-members.
Ticket package (for dinner and lectures) cost is $55 for Museum members & members of sponsor organizations, $65 for non-members.

Lectures

Two lecture events will explore geopolitical and personal survival in the Nordic countries and in Europe during WWII.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011, 7pm: Story of Survival
Magda Altman Schaloum was born in Hungary in 1922. She was deported to Auschwitz after the occupation of Hungary by the Germans in 1944. Her sister avoided deportation thanks to one of the protective passports from Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Magda was later transferred to forced-labor camps in Poland and Germany. She and fellow prisoners were rescued in late 1945 by Allied troops. A speaker with the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, Magda shares her experiences on behalf of all Holocaust survivors and their families.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 7pm: Nordic American Voices Oral History Project: Resistance in Occupied Norway and Denmark
Resistance to German occupation during WWII took many forms, from daring acts of personal defiance to simple expressions of non-cooperation. The Nordic American Voices Oral History Project documents the lives of the Nordic immigrant community in the Pacific Northwest. Narrators who have contributed interviews to the project will describe their experiences of occupation. Many were children or adolescents during the war but witnessed their parents' strategies for resistance and participated in their own way during a time of great hardship and oppression.

Cost: Lectures are $5 for Museum members and members of sponsor organizations, $7 for non-members. Reservations not required.