B’nai Brith Canada pleased to announce appointment of Memorial University’s Prof. Gerhard Bassler to Advisory Board of National Holocaust Task Force

Posted On 09/30/09
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

B’nai Brith Canada pleased to announce appointment of Memorial University’s
Prof. Gerhard Bassler to Advisory Board of National Holocaust Task Force

TORONTO, September 30, 2009 – B’nai Brith Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Gerhard Bassler of Memorial University of Newfoundland to the Advisory Board of the National Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.

Gerhard Bassler is a dedicated Holocaust educator. Recently, he pioneered and taught the popular undergraduate research seminar “The Holocaust in Historical Perspective” at the Memorial University. In 2004, he received an award for Outstanding Contributions to Holocaust Education in Newfoundland and Labrador (2004). Bassler is the author of Sanctuary Denied, which focuses extensively on Newfoundland’s record of turning away World War II refugees seeking sanctuary from the Nazi killing machine.

“Professor Bassler is Canada’s leading expert on Newfoundland’s record during the Holocaust era of refusing to help refugees in fear of their lives trying desperately to flee Nazi Europe,” said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada. “We are very pleased and proud to see his name added to this very important National Holocaust Task Force.”

The National Task Force on Holocaust Research, Remembrance and Education is a centralized body, operating under the auspices of B’nai Brith Canada, that will bring together scholars, legal experts and educators with Holocaust survivors and Jewish community stakeholders in an effort to share and enhance the important Holocaust research and educational work being done in Canada.

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For more information, please contact, Dan Rabkin, Communications Officer:
416-633-6224 X 140 / cell: 416-312-9173

B’nai Brith Canada has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish community’s foremost human rights agency