Features Presentations by Father Patrick Desbois and
Rachael Cerrotti, Inaugural Storyteller in Residence for USC Shoah Foundation
(TEMPE, Ariz. – February 8, 2022) The Phoenix Holocaust Association is bringing Holocaust by Bullets (HBB), a community-wide education program back to the Valley. Originally scheduled for the spring of 2020, the exhibit and education programs return to the Valley, February 27- April 17 at ASU’s Hayden Library in Tempe.
HBB is a program of Yahad-In-Unum (YIU), a non-governmental organization based in Paris and founded by Father Patrick Desbois.
The event opens on February 27 and will feature a keynote address by Rachael Cerrotti, an award-winning author, photographer, educator and audio producer who will be sharing her work that explores the intergenerational impact of war and the inheritance of memory. She is currently the Inaugural Storyteller in Residence for USC Shoah Foundation where she produces and co-hosts The Memory Generation podcast.
In 2019, Cerrotti released her first podcast — We Share The Same Sky. It was the first-ever narrative podcast based on a Holocaust survivor’s testimony and tells the story of her decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother’s war story. Her debut memoir, also titled We Share The Same Sky, was released in August 2021.
The exhibition is open through April 17, 2022 at the Hayden Library. Click here to see map. Exhibit hours are Sundays from 1-3 p.m. and Mondays from 5-7 p.m. Docent-led tours for the public are offered during these times. ASU students can visit any hours the library is open.
“Holocaust by Bullets 10 Years of Investigation” presents the results of Yahad-In Unum’s research in Eastern Europe. It also underscores the “Holocaust by Bullets” as a precursor and model for mass murder crimes today. The exhibit showcases the painstaking research uncovering the step-by-step nature of the crimes committed against Jews and Roma by the Nazi killing units.
With a life devoted to researching the Holocaust and fighting anti-Semitism, Father Desbois will be lecturing on April 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Memorial Union on ASU’s Tempe Campus. His lecture will discuss how Yahad-In Unum identified and documented the murders of more than two million Jews and Roma in the former Soviet Union at 2,700 execution sites in 11 countries and with more than 7,000 videotaped eyewitness testimonies.
Father Desbois kicks off the 10th Annual Genocide Awareness Week programming, a Holocaust Educators Conference in conjunction with the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE), and a concert by the Phoenix Boys Choir preceding Father Desbois’ presentation and a Klezmer concert. For a complete listing of events, please visit www.holocaustbybulletsaz.com.
Collaborating partners include Arizona State University School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, BJE, and the Rosenbluth Family Charitable Foundation, the sponsoring donor for Genocide Awareness Week, as well as the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, Jewish Community Foundation, The Molly Blank Fund, and Amy and Andrew Cohn.
About Phoenix Holocaust Association
The Phoenix Holocaust Association (PHA) is a partnership of Holocaust survivors, their descendants and the larger community. PHA honors the memory and legacy of survivors and victims, promotes awareness of the Holocaust, provides education of this and other genocides and contributes to tikkun olam, repair of the world. PHA offers, sponsors and supports a number of Holocaust education events and programs as well as provides speakers and materials to schools throughout the Greater Phoenix area. Additionally, PHA sponsors films, lecture series and Café Europa, a monthly luncheon for survivors, their families and friends to socialize and connect.
PHA holds an annual community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration to honor local survivors and to remember the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. This year’s Yom HaShoah commemoration is May 1, 2022.
