Widen the Circle Visiting Program

Meeting in Germany, American and German Experts Explored How To Use Lessons of the History to Fight Current Racism and Bigotry

American educators, activists, and thought leaders met with counterparts in Germany to jointly explore how the power of local history can combat racism and prejudice. The Visiting Program, held from June 9–16, 2022, is an integral part of Widen the Circle’s International Bridge-building initiative, which brings together like-minded activists in Germany and the U.S. to share tactics and strategies.

The Americans conferred with German volunteers and professionals who are using the lessons of the past to confront modern antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. While exploring similarities and differences in the ways that the U.S. and Germany deal with their violent pasts, the visitors also focused on how to overcome American resistance to acknowledging the history and ongoing legacy of racism in the U.S.

Participants in this year’s Visiting Program were:

• Steve Becton, Chief officer for equity and inclusion at Facing History and Ourselves

• Karlos K. Hill, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma whose most recent book is The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History and who was instrumental in ensuring the details of this horrific event are taught in the place where it happened

• Derek Black, a former white supremacist advocate who has publicly renounced the ideology and whose story has been chronicled in the book Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist

• Nancy K. Kaufman, who leads a strategic consulting and coaching practice and previously served as CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women

• Carlin Wragg, a documentarian and leading designer of installations that use digital media and physical space to convey lessons of history

• Deborah L. Plummer, an international leader in the field of diversity and inclusion and the founder of Getting to We Inc.

• Jerry Rubin, former president and CEO of Jewish Vocational Services Boston, which works to empower individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers

• Marc Skvirsky, the former vice president and chief program officer at Facing History and Ourselves

• Joel Obermayer, founder and executive director of Widen the Circle.

Joining the Visiting Program were three Obermayer award winners from Germany:

• Sabeth Schmidthals, a high school teacher in Berlin who has introduced many students from immigrant backgrounds to the history of the persecution of Jews and other minorities in Germany

• Jonathan Coenen, vice chairman of Badehaus, a museum and organization that tells the story of a displaced persons camp for Jewish Holocaust survivors in Europe, called Föhrenwald, which also became the home for German Catholic refugees from neighboring countries after World War II

• Gabriele Hannah, a storyteller, researcher, and author who has kept alive the memory of German Jews in the Rhine-Hesse region, where Jewish communities were destroyed by the Nazis.

One highlight was the visitors’ participation in Widen the Circle’s Summer Forum. This program on June 11–12 convened a unique national network of Obermayer Award winners and other Germans who are united by issues of remembrance and fighting prejudice.

On Saturday evening, June 11, a keynote panel discussion in English focused on how to prevent right-wing populism from gaining strength. The panelists were Visiting Program participant Derek Black plus Stephan Conrad from Treibhaus, a prejudice prevention program based in Döbeln, a town in Saxony where there is significant support for the far right.

Participants in the Visiting Program also:

• Conferred with experts at major memorials and sites of remembrance, and met with Obermayer Award winners and a range of other activists and thought leaders in the Berlin area.

• Engaged with professionals and volunteers involved in several Obermayer award-winning organizations in Saxony, who are trying to combat the extremism of neo-Nazis and others on the far right. These included the Erich-Zeigner House, AKuBiZ (Alternative Culture and Education Center), and Treibhaus.