Human Rights Initiative director to speak at Holocaust stamps exhibit dedication

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Boaz Dvir, director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State, will speak at 6 p.m. May 31 during the dedication of “A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust” at the American Philatelic Society in Bellefonte.

The Philatelic Society, which has curated the exhibit, will host the invitation-only ceremony as well as a free, public open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 11 at the American Philatelic Center, located at 100 Match Factory Place in Bellefonte.

The May 31 event will include remarks by:

• Boaz Dvir, a Penn State faculty member, award-winning filmmaker and director of the initiative, part of the Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative
• Scott English, executive director of the American Philatelic Society
• Charlotte Sheer, an educator who initiated the Holocaust Stamps Project with her students at Foxborough Regional Charter School in Massachusetts

In 2018, Foxborough students completed a nine-year project collecting 11 million stamps representing the victims of the Nazi regime. Donations arrived from Holocaust survivors, their families and others from 48 U.S. states and the District of Columbia as well as 29 countries. Known as the Holocaust Stamps Project, the project included peer-to-peer teaching tools created by students on various aspects of the Holocaust.

“As someone who spent hours each week growing up collecting stamps, I’m in awe of what Charlotte and her students put together,” said Dvir, an assistant professor of journalism at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. “I’m so grateful for the American Philatelic Society for putting together this vital and vibrant exhibit.”

The American Philatelic Society built “A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust” from the project’s 11 million stamps and educational materials. The exhibit also includes postal relics sent to and from concentration camps and ghettos during the Holocaust.

“A postcard mailed from a Poland ghetto might be the only surviving, tangible evidence of the life and death of a Jewish victim of the Nazi regime. To touch history like that makes it real,” said the exhibit’s coordinator, Susanna Mills. “The American Philatelic Society is proud to safeguard and share those stories told by stamps and postal relics.”

The American Philatelic Center is open to the public for tours from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. With members in more than 110 countries, the American Philatelic Society is the largest, non-profit organization for stamp collectors in the world.

Based in the Bellisario College, the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative is part of the Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative. It enables K-12 educators to effectively teach difficult topics such as racism and trauma.

For more information about the exhibit and dedication events, contact Amy Larimer (amy@stamps.org, 814-933-3803 ext. 225).