It Starts With Us: Contextualizing and Educating about the Holocaust

Nina Krieger is the Executive Director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. Nina has developed exhibitions, educational programs and pedagogical materials that challenge audiences to probe the complex historical, cultural, and ethical issues raised by the Holocaust. During her tenure as Executive Director, the VHEC has completed multi-year projects to support the preservation, access, and educational use of the Centre’s collections. She holds an Honours degree in history from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Research degree in Humanities & Cultural Studies from the London Consortium, a multi-disciplinary graduate program of the University of London, the Architectural Association, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Tate.

Nina is a member of the Canadian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Professor Chris Friedrichs is a distinguished scholar of German history who taught at the University of British Columbia from 1973 until his retirement in 2018. He is a specialist in European history, with particular interests in the history of early modern cities and the history of Jews in Germany. Professor Friedrichs has won international recognition for his research, and university awards for excellence in teaching and service.

Robert Krell was born in Holland and hidden during the Holocaust. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with an M.D. in 1965. He continued his Psychiatric training in Philadelphia and Stanford University. He returned to UBC and in 1970, he became an F.R.C.P.(C) and in 1971 a Diplomat of the American Boards of Psychiatry and Neurology. As a noted Professor of Psychiatry at UBC, he became internationally recognized for his scholarly research and public lectures on the psychological trauma of Holocaust survivors and their children. In his professional career, he was Director of Residency Training for ten years and for twenty-five years was the Director of Child and Family Psychiatry at the UBC Health Sciences Centre and B.C.’s Children’s Hospital. He served as Professor of Psychiatry until 1995, when he became Professor Emeritus.

Dr. Krell’s commitment to social justice led to one of his most extraordinary goals; to create a permanent legacy in the form of a centre devoted to Holocaust based anti-racism education for the citizens of British Columbia. As its Founding President, his unique vision was realized when the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) opened its doors in 1994. He is an active speaker and Holocaust outreach speaker for the VHEC.

Dr. Abby Wener Herlin has been engaged in the areas of social justice education, social emotional learning education, non-profit organizations, and the creative written arts for over twenty years. She holds a PhD from UBC in Language and Literacy Education and has dual master’s degrees in Social Justice Education and Counselling Psychology. Abby joined the VHEC in September 2021 as Program and Development Manager. She is a member of the third generation of Holocaust survivors and regularly explores her identity as a descendant in writing.