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Editors: Please include information on reservations in any media mention of this event, as Noémi Ban’s talks typically are full and people in the past have shown up without reservations, expecting to be admitted.

Contact: Ray Wolpow, director, Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education at Western Washington University, (360) 650-4529 or NWCHE@wwu.edu

BELLINGHAM – Noémi Ban, a local resident, award-winning teacher and Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, will share her story at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 13 in Arntzen Hall 100 on Western Washington University’s campus.

Admission is free: however, seating is limited and pre-registration is required. To make a reservation, go to the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education’s website at www.wce.wwu.edu/NWCHGE/ .

Noémi Ban, a local resident, award-winning teacher and Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, will share her story at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 13 in Arntzen Hall 100 on Western Washington University’s campus.

Ban’s story is one of loss, tragedy, resiliency, hope, and inspiration. A survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ban lost her mother, grandmother, and younger sister and brother to the horrors of the death camps, and worked at the slave labor camp at Buchenwald. After the Holocaust, she was witness to the 1956 Soviet repression of the anti-communist uprising in Hungary.

“Your generation may be the last one able to listen to a survivor,” Ban has told Western students.  She will speak on the 75^th Anniversary of the “Krystallnacht,” or “Night of Broken Glass,” which most historians view as the unofficial start of the Holocaust.

Ban will be available for a Question and Answer session and book signing at the end. Ban’s speech is sponsored by Western’s Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education (NWCHGEE).

Ban retired as a teacher in 1989 so she could devote her time to educating students about the Holocaust, visiting dozens of classrooms each year. She is the author of the book “Sharing is Healing,” and her experiences are documented in the 2007 film “My Name is Noémi.” Ban has received Honorary Doctorates from Western and Gonzaga University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 Daughters of the American Revolution Americanism Award.

For more information on Ban’s lecture, contact The Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education at Western Washington University at (360) 650-4529 or NWCHE@wwu.edu.