A Timeline by Decades

Enjoy our 40th Anniversary Timeline—the milestones, innovations, and turning points. It is organized into decades, but of course the evolution is more of a continuum as new leaders and community members added their own passions and purpose to the mission and vision. Enjoy the inspiring achievements of so many talented people. We are indebted to so many wonderful people who joined in to help create our 40-year Timeline, organized by decades, as part of our anniversary celebration. To our delight, founders, builders, and long-time community members spent time researching, proofreading, and finding resources to be sure the information is as accurate as possible. Some of those who assisted are: Ragnhild Baade, 40-Year Board Member; Merle Nelson, Founding Board Member; Charles Rotmil, Holocaust Survivor; Sharon Nichols, Former Executive Director; Patty Stanton, Founding Member of the Diversity Leadership Institute; Robert Katz, Creator of Were the House Still Standing; David Greenham, Former Executive Director; Shenna Bellows, Former Executive Director ; Liz Helitzer, Former Executive Director; Robert Bernheim, Ph.D., Former Executive Director; Sheri Stevens, Current Board Member.

We are celebrating our 40th Anniversary this year and couldn’t be more excited! The Holocaust and Human Rights Center was founded by Holocaust survivors willing to travel around the state and share their deeply personal stories with students. They hoped that young people would respond by feeling a personal responsibility to treat their classmates with kindness, speak up against prejudice, and welcome newcomers as friends. Through the decades, members of the growing community helped expand the educational offerings, build a cultural center, and become a trusted source for strengthening communities in Maine. The basis of our work has been meaningful storytelling. If the 1980s brought history alive through survival stories, the 1990s focused on organizing and sharing those stories, the 2000s on building a home and multimedia installation to recreate the experiences, the 2010s on sharing them more broadly, and the past 5 years on making storytelling and community central to our work.

As we think back at HHRC’s incredible growth in the last 40 years, we feel an outpouring of gratitude for the thousands of people who helped this organization thrive. What began as a seminar at Bowdoin College in 1984 has become a force for hopeful work and change. In classrooms, at the stunning Michael Klahr Center, in Maine communities, we facilitate honest conversations and encourage people to speak up against racism and prejudice and for the human rights of all people. As we celebrate the 40th Anniversary, we will rely on the stories of our founders, showcase the achievements of each decade, and profile people who brought talent, scholarship, friendship and joy to its evolution. Read it here.