‘Lessons of the Holocaust’ program to be presented at Charles City Public Library

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The lessons learned from history can be more important than the history itself, according to Iowa Holocaust Council member and educator Brad Wilkening.

“This is not a history lesson,” Wilkening said. “This is a lesson of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man, while the world stood by and allowed it to happen.”

Wilkening will present his program, called “Lessons of the Holocaust,” on Monday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. in the Charles City Public Library Zastrow meeting room.

In the program, Wilkening will discuss the rise of the Nazi Party and how Hitler came to power in Germany. Wilkening will also share Holocaust survivor stories. The presentation will last for about an hour and 20 minutes, and is free and open to the public.

“Bullying and indifference start at an early age, and we have a responsibility to help create a safer, more caring environment,” Wilkening said. “We need to be ‘upstanders’ and not bystanders in the face of evil. My goal is to keep the lessons of the Holocaust alive.”

Wilkening said his main purpose for sharing this program is for all to realize that decisions have consequences — and not making decisions has consequences as well.

“We are seeing a great increase in anti-Semitism around the world and here in the U.S.,” Willkening said. “The Iowa Holocaust Council that I am a part of is trying to address this issue by working to create a program that teachers could use to address the issue. We all have a responsibility to work to eradicate hate in all forms.”

Wilkening grew up in Nevada, Iowa, and graduated from Augsburg College. He started teaching in 1975, and has taught and coached sports in many schools around Iowa, including Albia, Eagle Grove, Laurens-Marathon, Storm Lake St. Mary’s and Ankeny.

In 2009, he attended a class at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and developed a semester-long course about the Holocaust to teach to high school students. In 2011, he was one of 35 people chosen by the Illinois Holocaust Museum to attend a week-long class at Columbia University, and in 2012 he was selected for a class in Newark sponsored by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.

He became a member of the Iowa Commission on Holocaust Education in 2014, and in 2015 he began sharing his presentation in schools and libraries across the state of Iowa.

“After the terrorist attacks of Sept.11, 2001, I became convinced that my job as an educator needed to reach far beyond making my students smarter,” Wilkening said. “That is what I had been doing for 25 years. Now I knew I needed to make them better people, more humane, more caring and understanding. This is what I want this presentation to embody.”

For questions or more information about the event, contact the Charles City library at 641-257-6317.