by NZ CATHOLIC staff
The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand awarded scholarships to Adèle Churchman of Roncalli
College, Timaru, Colin Macleod of Kavanagh College, Dunedin, and Dan Stollenwerk of St Peter’s College, Auckland, for the January trip to the Holy Land.
Some of the top researchers in their field gave the participants lectures on life, music,
literature and art in the ghettos before the final solution, as well as the history of anti-semitism leading up to the birth of the new nation of Israel after the Holocaust.
Additional tours included the Dead Sea, Masada, the Golan, Tel Aviv, Galilee and Jerusalem’s
old city.
Lecturers and participants alike did not shirk from the larger questions: Did anti-semitism
in the medieval Catholic Church contribute to the Holocaust? Where was God in the Holocaust? Is the Holocaust linked to Israeli statehood? What threat does radical Islam pose to the Jewish state? What are the prospects for peace in the Middle East?
The DRSs are now expected to return to New Zealand with the knowledge and tools they’ve acquired to encourage the teaching of the Holocaust in their Church history, biblical and religious studies classes.
Reader Interactions