Center teaches about the Holocaust and all genocides

 

As the director of education with the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle, Paul Regelbrugge engages with educators across the state to offer resources and training on how to teach about the Holocaust, hate and systems of oppression.

In 1989, a small group of survivors started the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center to connect teachers with survivors who were willing to speak in schools to address Holocaust denial and counter antisemitism by sharing their stories.

In 2015, when it opened its museum, it changed its name to the Holocaust Center for Humanity.

"The Holocaust Center for Humanity is not only about the Holocaust but also for humanity, teaching why and how Holocaust education matters for vulnerable groups and all of us today," Paul said. "Holocaust education is not just for European or Jewish kids. It's for everyone to learn from the Holocaust how to challenge what is happening today.

"History without action is futile. History needs teeth, so we partner with tribes and organizations representing African Americans, Latinx Americans, Indigenous Americans and Japanese Americans. It's about the impact of hate and what is happening today, so people do better, interrupting hatred and discrimination to prevent violence and worse," he said.

For example, in November, in conjunction with the Spokane Tribe, Spokane Falls Community College and Temple Beth Shalom, Paul created and led a workshop for 45 educators who discussed the Holocaust, Indigenous history and genocide. Historian Warren Seyler of the Spokane Tribe led them to sites of historic and current significance for the tribe.

"Because what we offer is about all genocides, not just about the Holocaust, it matters for all of us," he asserted. "All genocides and mass atrocities are uniquely and equally evil. We must avoid comparing suffering as if there is a scale, prioritizing the interests of some groups and not others. For example, antisemitism must be addressed on an equal plane as we would confront any and all forms of hatred, with zero tolerance, no more and certainly no less."

The center teaches teachers and students about the Holocaust and other genocides, so they ask questions, take responsibility and do more than disapprove of the violence.

"We want people to speak out, because silence also harms. We teach history so people question and confront systems of oppression that enable hatred, violence and mass atrocities," he emphasized. "Our goal is for people to act."

Paul believes hatred and antisemitism alone were not the cause of the Holocaust.

"The cause was that education, business, corporate and government institutions had allowed it to happen. In many instances, they weaponized hate, enabling it to progress to genocide, and all the while, too few people stood up to interrupt what was occurring all around them," he said.

Paul also believes in the power of storytelling and dialogue to create communities where people value each other and see what they have in common.

"Educators can create inclusive, brave spaces for every student," he affirmed.

Paul shared his journey into this role.

He grew up in Detroit, the son of immigrants. His father came from Belgium and his mother from Italy. After graduating from Michigan State University College of Law in 1990, Paul practiced law in Detroit and Chicago until 2005, when he completed a teachers' program at Northwest University and began teaching.

In his second year of teaching, he taught Mexican American eighth graders in inner city Chicago and wanted something to engage them. A colleague recommended Night by Elie Wiesel.

Paul read Night over the summer, connecting with it as the story of a father and son with European roots.

"I wasn't sure it would work for Mexican American students, but a week into it, the students began to teach me that it was about something beyond the European and Jewish context," he said. "As members of a different marginalized group and pre-judged for their skin color, accents and appearances, they made connections to some of Elie Wiesel's—and Jewish people's experiences that I couldn't or didn't."

When he taught African American high schoolers in Buffalo, NY, they also identified with the experiences of persecution and othering.

In Spokane, he taught sixth graders at Finch and Moran Prairie Elementary schools from 2009 to 2015.

Then, for two years in Kent, he taught students who were refugees from different countries, including Arab Muslims, where genocide had happened.

"They saw commonalities in how people treat one another based on perceived differences and not what we share in common. They also tied it in with their obligations to others," Paul said.

Throughout his teaching career and work at the center, he has seen the particular impact that survivor testimony has had on students of all ages.

The first survivor he worked with at the center was Robert Holczer, a Hungarian. Paul was so taken by his story that in 2019 he wrote a book about him, The Yellow Star House.

Even though he loved teaching, Paul joined the Holocaust Center for Humanity because he realized that he could have an impact on potentially thousands of students and hundreds of teachers.

"One reason they hired me was because of my successful work with Holocaust education in so many places and with different demographics," he said. "As a teacher, I would reach a certain number of students, but at the center we develop resources and training to reach many thousands of students—31,000 in 2025. We now reach more than 2,000 educators a year."

The Holocaust Center for Humanity offers four programs with free resources.

• The Speakers Bureau includes survivors and legacy speakers—children and grandchildren of survivors— sharing their stories.

• Teaching Trunks are available for schools to borrow for four weeks when they teach the Holocaust. Each trunk includes books for high schoolers, middle schoolers and upper elementary students, books that schools might not have the budget to purchase. The trunks also contain replica artifacts and the stories of survivors whose families donated the artifacts to the center.

• Field Trips to the center's museum are taken by people in the Seattle area and even by one private school in Spokane. Holding History is an extension bringing the museum to classrooms, using personal artifacts to address why it matters to learn about the Holocaust.

• Professional Development Teacher Training is the largest program for teachers. It is given in person and by Zoom.

The nonprofit Holocaust Center for Humanity is funded by grants and donations to serve in Washington or any Northwest state—Montana and Alaska—that does not have a similar Holocaust center. Boise has one, but sometimes teachers in Coeur d'Alene request a Teaching Trunk or speaker.

Paul finds that because he had previously worked for Spokane Public Schools and knows people, they are particularly responsive to the center's education programs.

"Knowing people in the district helps open doors, leading to a wonderful, reciprocal relationship of dialogue and support," he commented.

In Eastern and Central Washington, the center also provides resources to East Valley School District, Freeman High School, Central Valley, Mead, Deer Park and Grandview school districts.

"For years, we sponsored a writing and an art contest, but this is the third year we are offering just an art contest. It affords students a wonderful opportunity to engage creatively with historical stories of resistance and resilience, connecting those stories to their own lives," Paul said.

The Holocaust Center for Humanity is collaborating with Temple Beth Shalom (TBS) and the Spokane Yom Hashoah Committee. They will use the same prompt and resources for the 2026 art contest on "The Art of Courage and Resistance."

The center and TBS both have art contests. Those who enter the Spokane contest can also enter the center's contest.

"This year we created the prompt, suggestions and resources for both. The TBS deadline is mid-March. Our deadline is the end of March, connecting with several synagogues in Seattle, as well as Spokane's," he said.

The Yom Hashoah Committee plans the 2026 Commemoration of the Holocaust at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, at Temple Beth Shalom, 1322 E. 30th. It will feature Raymond Sun, a Washington State University history professor, interviewing Dutch Holocaust survivor and Holocaust educator Carla Peperzak.

For information, call 206-582-3000 or email paul@holocaustcenterseattle.org.