HRC Upstander Breakfast
Honoring Dr. Katherine Conway
Monday, June 11 at 8:30 – 9:30 AM
Burchfield Penney Art Center
1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo, New York 14222
Join the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo in honoring Dr. Katherine Conway-Turner with the first Upstander Award.
The Sophia Veffer Award is given to an individual who passionately provides educational and leadership opportunities to young people based on the mission of the Holocaust Resource Center: Teach the Lessons of the Holocaust, Honor the Survivors and Victims and Promote, Social Justice and Civic Responsibility Human Rights.
Net proceeds of The Upstander Breakfast will fund Holocaust programs aimed at training and engaging teachers and community members in understanding the Holocaust and its lessons for today. HRC trains 150 teachers who touch 15,000 students a year – enough to fill the Key Bank Center, Buffalo, NY. Increasing knowledge and dialogue will decrease polarization, extremism and genocide.
Dr. Conway-Turner is the ninth president of Buffalo State College, SUNY’s largest and only comprehensive college located in an urban setting. She oversees and manages more than 1,700 faculty, staff, and administrators who provide more than 200 academic degree and certificate programs to 8,500 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students each year.
President Conway-Turners vision for Buffalo State is to become “Buffalo’s College” through engagement, excellence, and social responsibility.
Sophia Veffer was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1929. She and her parent survived German’s occupation of Holland by going into hiding. She was placed away from her family. All other family members perished.
She immigrated to the United States in 1954. She is retired Special Education teacher and active in many community human rights and theater organizations.
Sophia a founder of Holocaust Resource Center and The Anne Frank Project at Buffalo State College. She is dedicated to educating ‘students about the lessons of the Holocaust and global human rights issues.”
On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Holland. During the summer of 1942, Sophia’s family was moved to Hollandse Schouwbrug, a holding center in Amsterdam. Her father “bought” their freedom and over the next few years, Sophia was hidden by countless families, never being allowed to stay too long. Because of a betrayal, she was brought to the Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam. From there she was sent to Westerbork, a transit camp near the German border in 1944.
In January 1945, Sophia was 14 years old and was transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. When she entered the camp, she met a Dutch woman whose children had been killed. The woman became Sophia’s “Mother” and gave her the will to live.
The camp was liberated by Britain in April 1945. She eventually returned to her hometown where she was reunited with her parents. Sophia came to the United States in 1954. She is dedicated to teaching to lessons of the Holocaust and other Genocides to WNY students.
– Article provided by the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo, NY