Please find below remarks given by VHEC Executive Director Nina Krieger, upon the receipt of her Life Fellow Award for 18 years of service, delivered September 19, 2024. 

Dear VHEC community, 

I would like to begin by thanking our founding president, Robert Krell, whose vision and leadership have been North Stars for the organization and the broader community. I would like to acknowledge that with us this evening is the founder Mariette Doduck, as well as the families of other VHEC founding survivors: Leon Kahn and David Shafran of blessed memory; and Leon Dales of blessed memory, a survivor involved in the establishment of the Holocaust memorial at Schara Tzedeck in New Westminster. These families’ continued involvement with the Centre speaks volumes. 

I reflect on my time with this remarkable organization—12 years as executive director, six years as education director, and even a stint as a summer research assistant before my graduate studies—with much gratitude. Gratitude to BC teachers for their commitment to guiding their students to face the essential human questions that emerge from studying the Holocaust. The dedication of educators is exemplified by the 2024 Kron Segal Award winners and is the reason the Centre exists.  

I am grateful for the hundreds of thousands of students we have reached over the last 30 years. These students come to our programs with curiosity and questions, and leave with a greater understanding of history, the lived experiences of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, and an awareness of their own potential and responsibility for moral decision making and moral courage, particularly in times of crisis. 

The VHEC is dedicated to perhaps the darkest chapter of human history, but it is filled with light and hope—it is the students who make it so.  

Of course, we could not reach these students without our skilled and talented docents, who guide students through VHEC exhibitions. And we could not carry out our mission without our volunteers, who facilitate tours and workshops, translate documents, label archival boxes, hand out programs at events and drive Holocaust survivors to speaking engagements. 

Our network of scholars—Chris Friedrichs, Richard Menkis, Lauren Faulker Rossi, Paula Draper, and others—sets the standard for our programming: their research and insights permeate our symposia and exhibitions and have helped make the VHEC a national and global leader in Holocaust education. Very few organizations, particularly of our size, have produced a roster of original, thematic, research-based exhibitions that contribute to public understanding of the Holocaust and its intersections with Canadian history. 

I am grateful to the Society’s directors, committee members and Guardians, as well as our community leaders, who are such strong ambassadors and champions of our work. I am grateful to our community partners: the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, CIJA, the JCC and JFS, as well as every congregation and festival in Vancouver. Together we collaborate to address the pressing issues of our time and to broaden Holocaust awareness. And I am grateful to VHEC members and supporters, many of whom are descendants of survivors. You understand the vital importance of Holocaust education and remembrance and your contributions are invaluable.  

I am beyond grateful to our survivors. You are the founders and the heart and soul of our Centre. You have been my teachers and my greatest inspiration. I feel like I am the most fortunate person in the world having you all in my life. Mazel tov, Malka and Rene, on your your Life Fellow awards. We are lucky to have you with us. But tonight I also think of those who have passed: Alex Buckman, David Ehrlich, Bronia Sonnenschein, Leslie Spiro, Susan Bluman, and so many others of blessed memory, always in our hearts. 

All VHEC efforts are supported by our incredible professional team, made up of experts in their fields, who are hard working and deeply connected and dedicated to the VHEC mandate and values. They are compassionate, caring, community-minded, ambitious and innovative. 

I am confident that Hannah Marazzi, who I have known for a decade through my work on the Canadian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and who joined our team last year as director of communications and special projects, will carry on the vision of the Centre steadfastly as acting executive director, effective this weekend.  

I am also grateful to past staff members, many of whom continue to be involved in new ways, and who have remained close to the organization and its team. And I am grateful to our tremendous past leaders: Frieda Miller, Roberta Kremer and Ronnie Tessler. I have learned so much from each of them, and the organization has been blessed to have such strength and continuity of leadership. 

Speaking of continuity, my thanks to Rome Fox, past assistant director and a dear friend. After retiring when she rounded out a quarter century with the Centre, Rome volunteers with us and was alongside the team at this year’s Annual Symposium on the Holocaust at UBC. She and I laughed together at how we still know the smells of the Woodward Instructional Resource Centre and the twists and turns of its corridors by heart.

All this to say, the Centre is on strong footing. Throughout my tenure I have been proud of the work we have done to grow our team, and to expand our reach and impact. I am particularly proud of the progress made to grow our collection of artefacts, archival materials and testimonies. When I became executive director in 2012, we had a one-day a week archivist and a $1000 line item for archives in our budget. We now have a 3-person collections team plus 5 project-based team members, doing work supported by hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding. This precious primary source material, rooted in our community, offers such powerful entry points for students and all visitors. Entry points into a diversity of experiences during, and responses to, the Holocaust. Entry points that are such powerful vehicles for fostering historical understanding, critical thinking and empathy. 

And there is much to look forward to: a new and expanded VHEC within JWest that will secure the future of Holocaust remembrance in our province. A BC curriculum that integrates Holocaust education. New frontiers for Holocaust education as we meet the growing demand for our programming from professional associations, postsecondary audiences, law enforcement, corporations and others. 

My friends, these are very challenging times. But amidst challenges we can and must find strength and hope in organizations like the VHEC: an organization built by community for community, a bridge between communities. It is this that motivates me as I look forward to the next chapter in my career. At this time of surging and mainstreaming of antisemitism, I hope that I will have the opportunity to support bridge-building between the Jewish community and government. I believe this to be important not just for this community but also for the wellbeing and security of our diverse, democratic society. 

I recognize that the path I am venturing on will be filled with challenges. But in everything I do, I will be strengthened by this community—a community that has built and that continues to steward a solemn and sacred mission. In all that I will do, I will carry with me the friendships, the testimonies and the values core to the VHEC and our purpose. 

Thank you all, thank you very much.