Sponsored by Laconia Human Relations Committee
Contact: David Stamps, 603-387-4382

The Laconia Human Relations Committee announces a public forum titled “The
Importance of Holocaust and Genocide Education.” The Forum will feature four
panelists who are members of the NH Commission on Holocaust and Genocide
Education:
 Tom White, Educational Outreach Coordinator of the Cohen Center
 Jay Kahn, State Senator- District 10 and Commission Chair
 Kati Preston, Holocaust survivor teacher, author, and Commission Vice-Chair
 Ashley Harbel, High School teacher and Holocaust scholar

The Commission was established on July 23, 2020 by the Legislature and Governor
Chris Sununu. Their charge is “… to study best practices for teaching students how
intolerance, bigotry, antisemitism, and national, ethnic, racial, or religious hatred and
discrimination have evolved in the past, and can evolve into mass violence and
genocide, such as the Holocaust.”

The Public Forum will be held at the Belknap Mill on July 21 from 5-7pm. The Forum
will be live streamed on YouTube. The public will have opportunities to ask questions
and make comments related to the Forum topic under guidelines that will be announced
at the Forum.

David Stamps, Committee Chair, in announcing the Forum, said that the Human
Relations Committee felt that it was important for Laconia to understand the work of the
Commission and the larger issues of the Holocaust and genocide education. It was
Winston Churchill who wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat
it.”

The Human Relations Committee is part of the Laconia Mayor’s office was established
in 2001. The Laconia Human Relations Committee envisions a world where everyone is
treated with dignity, fairness, respect, and kindness.