1998

The Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies is opening as a one-person, one room operation. But the center's director, Viktoria Hertling, has big plans for the center to grow into a vision she has had for more than 20 years. "There are so many possibilities", she said.

The mission of the center, which officially opens Thursday, is to promote research and provide information to area schools. It will also serve as a resource center, archive and speakers' bureau for the university community and the public,

Viktoria Hertling hopes that remembering the past will help
to preventfuture genocide. She is director of the Center for
Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies
at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Hertling said. "In the early 1990s we have witnessed and increase in genocide attacks and a global escalation of intolerance and violence," Hertling said. 'The mass killings and assaults on humanity in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere are terrifying reminders of the extermination of European Jewry."

She said the center's name incorporates lessons from the past, crimes against humanity and strategies for the future.

'The possibility of repetition is very alarming," she said.

Genocide still exists and is apparent in Bosnia, Hertling said. She also points to tragedies close to home such as the murder of Bill Metz.

Metz, a 36-year-old Reno businessman, was murdered by Justin Slotto last July. Slotto, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, said he was looking for a homosexual man to bash when he met Metz. Slotto also said he was trying to carve a swastika on Metz's body.

Hertling said the center will attempt to prevent future incidents by studying sociology, political science, arts and history.

The approval of the center came last fall. Hertling attributes the approval to debates that arose following the release of the movie "Schindler's List."

"It was so valuable it is beyond words," she said.

The center is currently housed in Hertling's office in the Frandsen Humanities Building at the University of Nevada, Reno and has an annual budget of $3,000. She said currently three volunteers are helping the center prepare Thursday's opening.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Europe, the center is presenting three who will talk about their experiences during the Holocaust. The event is free and will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the auditorium in the Jot Travis Students Union.

The program will include a slide presentation of children's drawings from the Terezin concentration camp. Hertling said viewing the children's work can be insightful because it offers conclusions drawn by the students.

She would like to include drawings from local school children after they have attended a lecture about the Holocaust.

Two months ago, Hertling gave six lectures to Clayton Middle School students about the effect of the Holocaust on children. She said the audiences were captivated by the photos and information.

"It is important to make them vulnerable and feel what the children felt when they were singled out and discriminated against," she said. "I'm a strong proponent of talking about these issues in middle schools."

She plans to expand this program so it will serve as a database of information for local schools. The center is also working to air a television segment about the Holocaust in May. Awareness and critical thinking are the backbone of Hertling's vision for the center.

Peace Studies was included in the center's name because Hertling hopes early warning signs can prevent genocide in the future.

"It will include analysis and solutions for the future," she said: "We really want to foster a climate where conflict and resolution are present."

She said she hopes the center is expanded to include an area for permanent exhibits.

"An exhibit of children's drawings will let (today's children) see something concrete and tangible," she said.

The center has been conducting taped interviews with 12 holocaust survivors or liberators who were found in the Sparks-Reno area. Hertling was able to find them just by asking around and telling people about her plans for the center. She expects the number to grow.

"Who knows what will come up," she said. "No one knows how many in this community have been directly affected."

She said inquiries have been coming from the business community and university students because "they see the value of what we are doing."

Hertling's western tradition students have had a preview of the center. She has incorporated a lecture about the Holocaust the last four years she has taught the course.

"The Holocaust should not be viewed as an unsurpassed and unique apex of brutality," she said. "Rather, it should serve as a warning to all nations."

She said students have been very receptive to her lecture and a minor degree in Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies is being formulated.

"Once we have everything in place the students will be able to sign on," she said.

Hertling said her interest in the Holocaust was sparked at the age of 13. Her teacher took her class to view a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, that had been defaced with swastika signs. She realized then that it took a lot more than a sandblaster to rid communities of hateful acts based on race, gender, creed and ethnicity.

"I was lucky I had such farsighted and wise teachers to take us to the synagogue," she said.

"I hope that the center can help to prevent genocide," she said. "One can only prevent something if they are sensitive to the early warning signs. People don't often heed the warnings."

Hertling plans on doing that by making her vision a reality.

"You have to dream in order to realize your goals," she said. "I'll give it my best shot."

Sparks woman recalls life in Hitler's Germany

Time and distance now separate Sparks resident Ann Milhollan from the horrors of the Holocaust, but the memories remain.

"I don't think you ever completely forget what happened," said Milhollan, 78. "I try. I try. I'm just grateful I was able to escape."

Milhollan remembers being grilled at the age of 18 by the German Gestapo about a boy in a picture she didn't even remember.

She was taken to Gestapo headquarters and shown a picture that had been taken during a party five years previous. One of the boys in the picture mimicked German leader Adolf Hitler in dress and hair.

Ann Milhollan

"I felt threatened at the time," she said. "They (the Gestapo) didn't need reasons (to threaten people) at the time. They took my passport away with the promise to return
it if I ever left Germany. They kept that promise."

Milhollan was able to leave Germany and go to England in 1939. That same year, she came to America leaving her parents behind. The move also meant the end of her nursing career-

"I still regret that to this day," she said. "Had I been able to complete (the training to become a nurse) as planned my life would be very different."

As a teen-ager, Milhollan recalled going to private homes to socialize because kids feared being placed in concentration camps or being severely punished if they were seen out in public.

"Through those years we were not allowed to attend public functions-even ones for entertainment," she said. "My group of friends had a normal social life under abnormal circumstances.

"You were extremely afraid of everything you did and said. You didn't trust anyone. You couldn't. Anyone could turn you in for anything."

Still, Milhollan feels fortunate. "My every day life is not affected," she said. "I could have been one of the millions who perished."

She is also thankful she was able to bring her parents to America in 1940 and she was reunited with her siblings who left Germany before she did.

She said it is important to talk about her experiences so such a tragedy will be prevented from happening again. She will be one of the guest lecturers at the first event put on by the University of Nevada, Reno's Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies Thursday.

"Many of the young people of today don't know much about what they did to the Jewish race," she said. "I want to make them realize it really did happen. Some believe it to be propaganda."

She said to prevent such occurrences in the future people need to practice tolerance and understanding.