10/5/03

Behind Bars, Lessons From Wallenberg
Inmates at a New Jersey prison are learning how circumstances turn ordinary people into heroes.
From The Jewish Week, September 26, 2003
By: Debra Nussbaum Cohen

Fort Dix, N.J. — The residents who traverse the blue cinderblock wall hallways, decorated only by stenciled warnings not to loiter and to “keep your hands out of pockets,” are focused on two things: getting through each day and the date they will be released.

But on a recent Monday afternoon, two dozen men in dun-colored uniforms are bent over worksheets on their desks in a pair of windowless rooms at the Midstate Correctional Facility here focusing on something larger than themselves: the heroes in their lives.

Before writing brief essays and reading them aloud, they study examples of other heroes, including Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, a gentile who in six months forged protective documents and arranged safe houses to rescue upwards of 100,000 Hungarian Jews from certain death at Nazi hands before being arrested and imprisoned by the Soviets in 1947.



His fate was shrouded in mystery. The Soviets claimed Wallenberg, who was imprisoned when he was only 34, died soon after his arrest. But it was widely believed that he lived for years more.

Wallenberg was an educated man, far more so than these men in a state prison high school equivalency diploma prep class. But he was also an ordinary person made great by risking his own well-being to preserve the lives of others.

“Some students here ask why he helps Jewish people when he was Christian,” says Nibaldo Soto, 40, who has been imprisoned at Midstate for nearly three years after being convicted of arson and expects to be released in November. “But everybody’s the same to me. In Chile I had a lot of Jewish friends.

Soto, who came to the United States from Chile in 1990 and was working as a construction supervisor before being arrested, says of Wallenberg, “I like the way he helped people, just talking with people and being modest. Now we tend to be too aggressive.”

Most of the men have had little exposure to Jews or other groups outside of the prison or the depressed New Jersey communities where they were raised, so in Jeanine Puliti’s class they are learning about xenophobia and how Wallenberg’s action were its antithesis.

Puliti and her colleague, Frank Vangeli, usually teach the inmates basic arithmetic and literacy skills to prepare them to take the exam that might earn them a high school diploma.

Since July they have integrated a curriculum called “Study of Heroes,” learning about people whose actions made them extraordinary: Harriet Tubman, Anwar Sadat, Cesar Chavez and the Dalai Lama, among others. Each used nonviolent methods to improve the lives of those around them.

The idea originated with Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim, chairman of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, who was speaking to students about Wallenberg’s life and legacy.

“Age and demographics didn’t matter,” she says. “As I began to tell the story of a real hero, an incredible stillness would come over the classroom, whether it was kindergarten, middle school or high school, and in Colorado, Idaho or North Carolina.”

She realized that The Wallenberg Committee had the opportunity to make a more systematic impact.

“Children do not have real heroes and we have a chance to inculcate the values of Raoul Wallenberg,” Oestreicher Bernheim says. “I said, ‘Let’s not do a Holocaust program, when there are such great ones out there. Let’s do something different, and address the multiplicity of ethnicities and nationalities in our country.’ ”

In the decade since the first versions were tested in New York and North Carolina public schools, the course has been taught to about 1 million students in more than 1,500 schools around the country. Among them were the Catholic schools in the Evansville, Ind., diocese, with funding from an interfaith group, and last summer in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Washington, D.C., for character education. It is adaptable to any grade level.

Last year the New Jersey Department of Education listed the curriculum as an exemplary character education program, which prompted the head of the state prison’s education office to contact The Wallenberg Committee.

In March, teachers from the state’s 17 prisons met in Trenton for two days of training before integrating the curriculum into their work.

“We know that from January 1945 onward, Raoul Wallenberg was held in the gulag. What better place to hold this program than in a prison?” said Oestreicher Bernheim.

“We hope to see this in prisons and jails across the country. We’d like to see a mentoring system with law students and attorneys who would begin doing afterschool mentoring for students who have a parent in prison. We might be able to have parent studying the same thing in prison at the same time,” she says.

Making An Impact

Surrounded by tall fences lined with concertina wire, Midstate is tucked in the back of a vast military base at Fort Dix in the building that used to serve as the stockade for wayward recruits. Green pastures and stands of mature trees carpet the area beyond the armed guards and watch towers.

Inside the prison, inmates live 38 to a large room called a tier, sharing two showers and one television. They have been convicted of a variety of crimes: arson, driving without a license and running from the police. More than half were convicted of sexual offenses.

They are fathers of young children, former construction workers. Nearly all are black or Latino. Some quit school after the eighth or 10th grade, though others, like David Jackson, 45, are educated.

Jackson, asked what got him into prison, responded with an abashed laugh. “That’s personal,” he says. He has two bachelor’s degrees and had started studying for his MBA.

For two decades, Jackson says, he worked as an accountant and analyst in the pharmaceutical industry. He has two children, 8 and 10, but has divorced since being in prison. He expects to be released in April.

Jackson, articulate and confident, is working as a teaching assistant in Vangeli’s cinderblock-walled classroom. He says the curriculum on heroes helps the inmates in his class with their reading and writing, which they ordinarily fear, by getting them to do both as a byproduct of the coursework.

The assignment he helps oversee on the day a visitor is present is for the prisoner-students to identify a hero in their lives. Most name their mothers or both parents.

“My mother and father tried to tell me right and wrong, but I didn’t listen,” says Sal, a man with a sweet smile and goatee. “And right now I’m locked up, so …” he trails off.

“My mom told me to stay in school,” says Emerson High, 42, who was sentenced to 62 years for burglary. He quit school in the eighth grade “just to hang out.”

“Today I can really see what she was talking about. This class keeps my mind on the right track. My mind is clear now, got no drugs and no alcohol. I plan to keep it that way. I don’t have to put another burden on my mother’s back,” he says, sounding repentant.

High says when he is freed, he wants to attend computer school and maybe even speak to young people, urging them not to make his mistakes.

“I really want to share my strength and hope and be that role model,” he says.

Puliti is enthusiastic about the impact of the heroes program on her students.

“It helps them see the potential for heroism in their own selves,” she says. “It shows how you should take serendipity and make it a time to help someone else.

“What’s been most important is helping the men learn to verbalize feelings. Coming in, the guys mostly don’t differentiate and everything comes out as anger. Sometimes they confuse power with being a hero. With this curriculum the guys automatically get into little groups and start talking, emotional, about what they believe.”

“The guys really took in the material on Wallenberg and saw how communication, nonviolence and instilling hope in people, how that made a change,” she says.

Anthony Flores, 28, at Midstate “for the first time and last time,” he says grimly, has served 13 months for driving without a license and leading police on a milelong chase when they tried to pull him over. His first appearance before the parole board was scheduled for later that week.

He and his wife, who is now a police officer, have an 8-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who comes to visit him biweekly. To shield her from reality, he told her, “ ‘This is a camp for me, we have a swimming pool and horses here.’ And this summer she tells me, ‘I go to camp, too, Daddy.’ ”

“This class has helped me,” Flores says. “Before I started I was depressed. No one ever talked to me about heroes, not before. This is the first time, in prison. I have learned a lot.”

Learning About Heroes Is Key To Inmate Reform In New Jersey" by Marshall Dury, Internet Reporter, published by Corrections.com, August 25, 2003

Kathleen Morin: Taking a Closer Look at Heroes

TC Alumna Kathleen Morin is working with The Raoul Wallenberg Committee to develop and launch a new classroom education program.

TC alumna Kathleen Morin was working as a consultant to several not-for-profit organizations in 1990 when she was enlisted to help develop and launch a new classroom education program for The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States. "The theme was 'heroes,'" says Morin. But who was Raoul Wallenberg? "I had no idea," she recalls. "I'd never heard of him."

That changed quickly enough. Wallenberg, she would learn, was a Swedish diplomat who, at great personal risk, leveraged his position to save the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. Arrested by the Soviet military after the war, he was never seen again. His fate remains a mystery.

Since its founding in 1981, The Wallenberg Committee has sought to perpetuate Wallenberg's humanitarian ideals through educational offerings, awards and other activities. (Its board of directors includes Beth Chadwick Kasser, herself a TC alumna and the daughter-in-law of Wallenberg's personal translator.) Perhaps nowhere has the Committee registered a more immediate or personal impact than through its multicultural, interdisciplinary K-12 program, "A Study of Heroes: A Program that Inspires and Educates Through Heroic Example."

The program was conceptualized by committee chairperson Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim. "But Kathy Morin is its true genius," Bernheim is quick to note. "Its success owes everything to her vision, creativity and talent as an educator." It is Morin whom she credits for turning the concept into reality, co-producing an 1,800-page, 30-unit instructional resource that has been used in every state and three foreign countries. Prepared for three different reading levels and designed to integrate a broad array of subjects, the program to date has reached more than one million students.

The primary purpose of "A Study of Heroes" is to help students arrive at a true understanding of what a hero is-and isn't-and of the importance of heroic acts, especially as they relate to their own lives. "Children are prone to confuse the terms 'hero' and 'celebrity,'" says Morin. "When we were first getting started, we looked at polls conducted among students and saw that just about everyone named sports or entertainment figures as their heroes-and that virtually all were men. The only woman to be named with any frequency was Madonna." Adds Bernheim, "You had to be rich and famous to be a hero. Qualities like courage and compassion didn't figure in the equation."

Morin's collaboration with Bernheim was largely a matter of serendipity. Bernheim called TC in 1990 in search of an experienced curriculum development professional to assist in bringing "A Study of Heroes" to life. She wound up having a conversation with Professor Karen Zumwalt, for whom the story of Wallenberg's heroism seemed to strike a personal chord. Zumwalt immediately recommended Morin, a colleague and former student of hers. "She told me Kathy was exactly the person I was looking for," says Bernheim.

As a first step, Morin and Bernheim spent a year visiting New York City area schools-"everything from kindergartens to senior citizens centers," Morin says-recounting the story of Raoul Wallenberg and generating interest in their evolving new program. "The response was magical," says Morin. "Whether or not people had heard of Wallenberg, they became utterly engrossed in his story." Born into a prominent Christian family and educated at the University of Michigan, Wallenberg went to German-occupied Budapest in 1944 at the request of both the U.S. and Swedish governments. There he rescued as many as 100,000 persons marked for deportation to Nazi death camps by providing them with Swedish passports and refuge in "safe houses" under Swedish protection. In 1981 he became the sixth person ever to be named an honorary U.S. citizen. He remains one of six. "Rachel is the world's best story teller, but Wallenberg's story itself is inherently magical," says Morin. "It stays with you _forever."

In talking with students, Morin and Bernheim confirmed what the polls had shown-that children all too often viewed heroism and celebrityhood interchangeably. As the students began to recognize the difference, other misconceptions surfaced. "Many assumed you had to set out deliberately to become a hero," says Morin. "One of the things that most captures their imagination is the fact that Wallenberg was just an ordinary person who found himself in extraordinary circumstances and did what had to be done."

All told, Morin and Bernheim spent four years "camping out" in classrooms in New York City and North Carolina, fine-tuning their program, piloting it, and eliciting feedback from teachers and students, as well as from parents, administrators and others in the school community. "It's really the only way I've ever done curriculum development," Morin says.

At one faculty meeting, Morin asked if the program needed a usable definition of hero: "One teacher stopped me cold and said, 'Absolutely not.' She said it was important that the kids grapple with the concept on their own-not memorize someone else's construct." That notion has since become a core element in the program.

But that isn't to suggest that Morin and Bernheim haven't worked out their own definition. "We view a hero as someone who makes a positive difference, through non-violent means, in another's life," says Morin. Clearly, the 22 individuals studied in the program-among them, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, Arthur Ashe, Jacobo Timerman, Cesar Chavez, the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King-meet that standard. "But one of the best results of the program is the transformation it achieves," says Morin. "Kids begin to move away from the idea that a hero has to be famous and start pointing to people in their own family or community."

The curriculum also encourages students to discover their own "inner hero" through self-assessments, classroom discussion, community service and intergenerational sharing. "They learn that it isn't necessary to risk one's life or go to extreme lengths to perform heroic acts," says Morin. At one of the North Carolina pilot schools, a family of students showed up in their pajamas one day because their house had burned down and they had no other clothes. "They were picked on mercilessly, until one kid stepped forward and said, 'I don't think Raoul Wallenberg would like this,'" says Morin. "Amazingly, the bullying stopped. It was a compelling example of the power that hero stories have on people. You're never altogether sure what chord a story might be touching in a student-or when it will manifest itself. It may take five or 20 years, but these stories really stay with you."

A new unit now in development-"The Heroes of 9/11"-will focus on the police and firefighters who figured directly in the rescue and recovery efforts following last year's terrorist attacks, as well as on the legions of healthcare workers, volunteers and others who respond daily to emergency needs across the country. But the unit will emphasize that one needn't have spent time at Ground Zero to be considered heroic. "We know students who sold lemonade and raised hundreds of dollars to donate to their local firehouse," says Morin. "They're heroes too."

Just as no one sets out to be a hero, Morin never planned to be a teacher. After graduating from Hollins College in 1968 with a degree in mathematics and physics, she lined up a government job involved in pollution control when a hiring freeze put her out of work. Faced with a choice of two fall-back jobs-working nightshift at an airport, or teaching sixth grade in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Appalachia-she opted for the latter. She had never taught before.

Her sixth-grade charges ranged in age from nine to 18. Most lived in tiny wood frame houses, some without plumbing or heating, in hollows along the mountains' edge. "Some had never held a pencil or owned a book, yet they had a wisdom about so many things," she says. "For someone who had grown up in the New Jersey suburbs, it was a humbling experience. I realized how much I had to learn." After moving back to the New York City area, Morin decided she wanted to continue teaching and looked for jobs in predominantly non-white, low-income neighborhoods. "My reasons were selfish-I wanted to learn," she says. She spent three years teaching at Saint Cecilia's School in Spanish Harlem. "It was a challenging situation, but I had the chance to meet many wonderful people," she says. "And I learned something from everyone I met."

Morin holds a doctorate and a double master's degree from TC , as well as a third master's from Smith College. She was an instructor at TC from 1977-1983. Over the years she has served as consultant and program developer to scores of organizations including the South Bronx Human Development Organization, AARP, the New York Zoological Society, and the New York City Commission on the Status of Women. Her numerous publications include House Sense, a housing curriculum for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and a curriculum guide published by UNESCO and co-authored with TC professor Isobel Contento. In addition to working as director of education for The Wallenberg Committee, Morin serves as curriculum consultant to the Teachers Network, an international community of teachers and educators working together to improve student achievement through innovative instructional approaches, including Web-based curricular design.

Morin's creative approach informs every aspect of "A Study of Heroes." "We could have approached the subject of heroes in a way that is serious to the point of depressing," she says. "But of all the topics I've dealt with in curriculum development, this has been the most joyous, because all the stories center around restoring hope. Stories about heroes are serious, but they're also uplifting and inspirational-and, ultimately, fun."

Making a Difference from 30,000 Feet

10/7/03

As a teacher, I knew each day that I was making a difference in the life of a child. I could see it on the face of a 5-year-old who suddenly unlocked the code to read his or her first sentence. I saw it in the eyes of a 4th grader who saw a stalk of celery turn from pale green to red in a science experiment using water and some food coloring.

Beginning a Quest

When I moved into the role of an elementary school principal, I was able to see the difference I could make as a school leader, but I was a step removed from the day-to-day, one-on-one contact with the students. It became a little harder, and it took a bit longer for me to see the results of my labors.

As the Director of Schools for the Diocese of Evansville, I have limited daily contact with the nearly 8,000 Catholic school students. Knowing each student personally is impossible. I don't get the opportunity to share their dreams, successes, or disappointments as I once did as a classroom teacher. I focus on my leadership role, rarely seeing first hand that I am making any significant difference. Oh, our test scores are high, our students receive many awards and scholarships, graduation rates are better than ever, and our enrollment continues to increase. Parents frequently tell me how pleased they are to have their child in one of our schools. Generally speaking, I know from my view at 30,000 feet that we are doing outstanding things in our schools.

Recently, for two days, my vantage point changed. I was graced with the opportunity to meet with teachers and students who had been using a program designed to teach our students about heroes. In October, a local inter-religious group of women, known as the Committee to Promote Respect in Schools, of which I am a member, brought Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim and Dr. Kathleen Morin from New York to Evansville for a teacher workshop where this heroes curriculum was presented to 120 teachers and administrators. The program was created to remember a true hero, Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved over 100,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II. One of the members of the committee, Carol Abrams, read about this program in the New York Times and thought our committee should consider it. The committee has worked hard over the last few years to bring resources and curriculum to area teachers so that students can learn of the horrors of the Holocaust and be taught about peace and respect so that something like this will never happen again. At my suggestion, we asked if the program was being presented any where close to Evansville so that we might learn about it first hand. Fortunately, we were informed that the two ladies who had created this program would be presenting it at a conference in Nashville, just over two hours away. So, five of us from the committee decided to go to the conference and hear them for ourselves. We knew within minutes that this was exactly what we had in mind to bring to educators here. I remember saying, "This makes me want to go into a classroom and teach again."

With our newly found friends we began a quest to bring the heroes curriculum - A Study of Heroes, and the kits which house this program — to the teachers in our area of Southwestern Indiana. I was so excited about the program that I scheduled our October administrators' meeting on the day of the workshop. Because the workshop was being presented at the facility where we have our monthly administrators' meetings, all of our principals were in attendance. I also asked them to bring one teacher who could take the kit to share with their entire staff. And so began the movement within our schools of teaching and learning about heroes.

This is a Hit

Each year in our diocese, we choose a theme that all of our schools use. This provides an opportunity to work together and show a united effort in teaching our students about particular characteristics or virtues we believe good people should model. With the heroes curriculum soon to be in the hands of teachers all over the diocese, I suggested we use, with permission, a phrase from the program — "Be a H.I.T. — a Hero In Training." Our theme became: Heroes in Training. Soon after the workshop, ideas began surfacing for how schools and teachers were going to incorporate this into their curriculum. Bulletin boards were popping up everywhere. Essays adorned classroom walls and the halls of our schools. The children's art depicted their ideas of how a hero looks. Our religion classes became opportune times to raise the issues that illustrate characteristics of true heroes. No longer were only celebrities, fictional characters, and athletes named as heroes. Suddenly grandmothers, dads, aunts and uncles serving in the armed forces, policemen/women, custodians, and nurses were seen as the everyday heroes among us.

Surprisingly, the students themselves started recognizing each other for heroic acts. They began wanting to be heroic, not for any reward, but just because it was the right thing to do. Periodically I heard about some of these things. During my usual visits to our schools I saw the beautiful student work everywhere. Parents occasionally told me their child had described the heroes curriculum and how they were talking about the heroes in their family or neighborhood. But I had no idea what was really happening in the lives of our students. I did not truly understand until I sat totally amazed in meetings with teachers who told Kathy Morin and researchers from New York what they had taught and learned using this curriculum. Their enthusiasm and their stories of how the students responded touched me in a way that I will never forget.

As the researchers asked the probing questions to ascertain whether this program was successful, I sat back, observed, and listened. I saw teachers gathered in a large room after a long school day, 7 days from the end of the school year, eagerly sharing what they had taught their students and how the students responded. Some were frantically taking notes of other teachers' ideas and lessons to use next school year. I heard them talk about new heroes that the students wanted to study, and behavior that had positively changed. I listened as they told about improved vocabulary and writing skills, and a "gentleness" that had taken over their classrooms and, in some cases, their entire school. I heard teachers ask if they could have their own kit so that it would be closer at hand when teaching the lessons preserved within it. Once again, I felt the urge to use it myself with a classroom of students. I sat speechless, blinking back tears as I marveled at what had happened in classrooms that I sometimes only see from my distanced vantage point.

Inspiring the Children

And then, the real excitement began. I took Kathy and the researchers to a 5th grade classroom, where we heard the most incredible stories and watched hands eagerly shoot into the air to beg to share the answer to the questions the researchers posed. I heard one boy call his grandmother a "quiet" hero because she sat with the elderly several days a week in a nearby nursing home. He said, "she doesn't like for people to be lonely, so she sits with the old people there and holds their hands so they won't be sad." I thought of the countless unsung heroes who perform these quiet acts of kindness every day- not for any reward, but because it is the right thing to do. I was surprised that a 5th grader could comprehend the importance of such an act of kindness.

I saw young boys and girls who believed that they each had what it takes to be a hero. They truly understood that you don't have to be famous to be a hero. Being a hero might just mean being there for someone who needs your help. Any one of us might be called upon to do that at any time just as Raoul Wallenberg did when he decided to save the lives of thousands of Jews. He did not do it for the glory. He did it because it was the right thing to do.

This curriculum has changed the way our students look at heroism. Since those dreadful days of the Oklahoma City bombing and September 11, we Americans have learned that what we have mostly watched happen to our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world can now happen to us. We have wept at the tragedies that have befallen innocent men, women, and children. We have felt our hearts swell as we witnessed the love and unfaltering courage of those who risked their own lives to save another. Our own children, students in our schools, and people from all around the globe have observed us as we displayed our grief, our determination, our hope for a better world, and our perseverance to make it happen.

In the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Evansville we were privileged to discover this curriculum to teach our students what it means to be a hero in today's world. I believe it has better prepared our students to be good citizens by teaching them to emulate the behavior of the men and women they studied this school year. I trust that we have touched the hearts and lives of our students in a way they will embrace throughout their lives. And I suggest that if you look up — about 30,000 feet, you might see this Director of Catholic Schools from Evansville, Indiana with a glorious smile. Never mind the tears. She is getting a bit sentimental these days, and she finds it hard not to laugh and cry when she realizes that God continues to use her as an instrument to make a difference. What a blessed opportunity this has been!

A Study of Heroes is a classroom tested, character education, language arts, social studies, and interdisciplinary program that revitalizes traditional heroes and introduces less familiar ones. Students study their lives and learn to distinguish between a true hero and a celebrity by reading and participating in the program's comprehensive, creative activities. They discover heroes can also be parents, public figures, teachers, neighbors, fellow students...and themselves. For more information contact: Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim or Dr. Kathleen Dunlevy Morin at The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, 230 Park Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10169; Telephone: (212) 499-2695.

© Copyright 2003 Catholic Exchange

Phyllis Bussing, Ph.D. is the Director of Schools for the Diocese of Evansville.

Soviet double agent may have betrayed Wallenberg

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Soviet double agent may have betrayed the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps in World War Two, a researcher said Monday.

Swedish author Wilhelm Agrell said his study of secret service correspondence in Swedish and Soviet archives led him to believe Wallenberg, who was arrested by Soviet secret police in Hungary in January 1945, was turned in by friend Vilmos Bohm.

Agrell said in an article in Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter the archives show Bohm was a Soviet double agent codenamed Orestes, who may have told the Soviets of Wallenberg's activities.

A Swedish government report in March says Wallenberg and Bohm both worked undercover for Britain and the United States, with Bohm acting as a middle-man in Stockholm.

"If Bohm reported to his Soviet employers what he reported to his superiors in the British delegation, Raoul Wallenberg was betrayed and the fate he met no longer appears a mystery..." Agrell wrote in the newspaper.

Russia has said Wallenberg was taken to Moscow's notorious Lubyanka prison where he died in 1947 and acknowledged the diplomat was held by the Soviets for political reasons.

Wallenberg helped thousands of Hungarian Jews escape transport to and near certain death in Nazi Germany's concentration camps by issuing them Swedish passports.

A Hungarian, Bohm spent the war years in Sweden posing as a Social Democrat and political refugee. He was later Hungary's ambassador to Sweden after the war.

Wallenberg's fate has been an unsolved mystery and critics have said Sweden has made little effort to find out the truth -- possibly because of Wallenberg's close ties with Washington.

Sweden was neutral in World War Two and walked a diplomatic tightrope between the superpowers during the Cold War. It has refused to declare Wallenberg legally dead without proof.

"Information on Bohm's role as a Soviet agent does not solve all the puzzles around Wallenberg, but they open another dark dimension in an intelligence game which the drama of the young diplomat Raoul Wallenberg clearly was a part of," Agrell said.

05/12/03 10:00 ET

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Wallenberg Committee Offers Learning Experience to NJDOC Educators

The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States provided two one-day training sessions of its character education program for staff members at the New Jersey Department of Corrections. The programs, held March 19 and 20 at the department's Central Office headquarters in Trenton, were led by Rachel Oestereicher Bernheim, chair of The Wallenberg Committee, and Dr. Kathleen D Morin, director of education.

Those who took part in the program, titled "A Study of Heroes," included NJDOC Commissioner Devon Brown, Assistant Commissioner Carrie Johnson and Acting Director of Education Patty Friend. The initiative had never previously been utilized by a correctional entity.

During the course of the presentation, the instructors displayed a "diversity quilt," which was created by a high school class that recently witnessed "A Study of Heroes."

State of New Jersey Department of Corrections Whittlesey Road PO Box 863 Trenton NJ 08625-0863

James E. McGreevey Governor Devon Brown Commissioner

COMMISSIONER BROWN’S SPEECH BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY CHARACTER EDUCATION TRAINING MARCH 19, 2003

THANK YOU, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER JOHNSON FOR YOUR KIND INTRODUCTION, AND TO THE EDUCATION STAFF, GOOD MORNING! I WOULD ASK THAT EVERYONE PRESENT EXTEND A WARM DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS WELCOME TO MS. RACHEL BERNHEIM, PRESIDENT OF THE RAOUL WALLENBERG COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES, AND DR. KATHLEEN MORIN, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION. WE ARE HONORED TO HAVE YOU IN OUR COMPANY, LADIES.

TO THE EDUCATION STAFF, LET ME BEGIN BY EXPRESSING MY HEARTFELT AND DPROFOUND APPRECIATION FOR THE EXCEEDINGLY IMPORTANT TASK YOU PERFORM EACH DAY. AS EDUCATORS OF THE INCARCERATED, I REALIZE THAT YOURS IS NOT AN EASY WALK. BUT TAKE PRIDE IN KNOWING THAT UNLIKE ANY OTHER PROFESSIONAL, YOU HAVE TOUCHED MORE LIVES, INFLENCED MORE LIVES, AND YES, EVEN SAVED MORE LIVES THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW. INDEED, AS TEACHERS YOU POSSESS THE TORCH THAT LIGHTS THE FUTURE AND LEADS US OUT OF THE DARKNESS OF OUR IGNORANCE. YES, THERE IS GREAT TRUTH IN THE OBSERVATION THAT AN EDUCATOR CAN NEVER FULLY GRASP THE GRAVITY OF HIS/HER INFLUENCE ON THE NUMBER OF LIVES S/HE HAS IMPACTED. WITH THESE REALIZATIONS IN MIND, I THANK YOU ON BEHALF OF ALL OF THOSE WHO YOU WILL NEVER COME TO KNOW OR SEE BUT YET HAVE BENEFITED FROM YOUR WISDOM AND DEDICATION.

I WOULD LIKE TO QUOTE ONE OF THE HEROES PROFILED IN YOUR PROGRAM, HELEN KELLER. SHE SAID THAT “THE HIGHEST RESULT OF EDUCATION IS TOLERANCE.”

I CAN THINK OF NO MORE SUCCINCT PHRASE TO DESCRIBE THE AIM OF THE TRAINING UPON WHICH WE EMBARK TODAY.

AT FIRST BLUSH, ONE WOULD QUESTION THE COMMONALITY BETWEEN THE RAOUL WALLENBERG COMMITTEE, DEDICATED TO THE HIGHEST IDEALS OF ITS NAMESAKE, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, RESPONSIBLE FOR 25,000 OF SOCIETY’S OUTCASTS. AND YET, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN CONSIDER THIS QUESTION. CAN THERE BE A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO NEED ROLE MODELS AND HEROES—REAL HEROES—MORE THAN THE INCARCERATED? FORTY ONE PERCENT OF ALL ADULT OFFENDERS ARE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 21 AND 30. THIS INMATE READS ON A FOURTH GRADE LEVEL, MOST LIKELY HAS A SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROBLEM, IS A MINORITY AND HAILS FROM AN URBAN CENTER.

HE WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY CONSIDER A HERO ONE WHO HAS SUCCESSFULLY CIRCUMVENTED LAW ENFORCEMENT. CONTRASTED WITH THE NOBILITY AND COMPASSION OF RAOUL WALLENBERG, THE MOUNTAIN OF DIFFERENCE IS SEEMINGLY INSURMOUNTABLE.

BUT THE ART OF PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT, THE QUALITIES OF NOBILITY AND COMPASSION—THESE WILL DETERMINE SUCCESS BOTH INSIDE THE PRISON WALLS, AND YES, ULTIMATELY IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS.

AS EDUCATORS OF THE INCARCERATED, YOURS IS A MISSION UNLIKE ANY OTHER. BUT SO ARE YOUR POTENTIAL REWARDS. THE LIFE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OFFERS GREAT INSIGHT INTO YOUR WORLD. HE WRITES IN HIS “CONFESSIONS” THAT HIS YOUNG LIFE WAS FILLED WITH SIN AND CRIME, AND IT IS SAID THAT THIS MAN WHO WOULD BECOME A DOCTOR, BISHOP AND PHILOSOPHER CREDITS HIS MOTHER AND A TEACHER WITH HIS REFORMATION.

“THE SON OF SO MANY TEARS COULD NOT PERISH” WAS HIS DETERMINED EDUCATOR’S DECLARATION.

SO IT IS THAT THE CORRECTIONAL TEACHER FACES CHALLENGES UNKNOWN TO OTHERS IN THEIR PROFESSION. THE “STUDY OF HEROES” PROGRAM, WHICH IS FUNDED UNDER THE CHARACTER EDUCATION GRANT OF THE NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, MAKES ITS DEBUT IN A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY HERE IN NEW JERSEY. TO BORROW A PHRASE FROM THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM BUREAU, THEY ARE PERFECT TOGETHER!

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ANY SYLLABUS, NO MATTER HOW WORTHY, DEPENDS ON THE PASSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR.

I WOULD LIKE TO TELL MS. BERNHEIM AND DR. MORIN THAT THE MEN AND WOMEN THEY SEE BEFORE THEM TODAY HAVE THE PASSION AND ENTHUSIASM TO BRING THE WONDERFUL COMPONENTS OF A STUDY OF HEROES TO THOSE WHOM SOCIETY HAS LOCKED AWAY.

EDUCATORS OF INMATES DO NOT HEAR HAPPY VOICES AND LAUGHTER IN THE HALLWAYS, PUNCTUATED BY THE STACATTO OF CLOSING LOCKERS. THERE ARE NO MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE CONCERNING UPCOMING PEP RALLIES, DANCES OR BASKETBALL GAMES.

RATHER, THE SOUNDS OF CLANGING SALLYPORTS AND CODES BEING CALLED OVER THE INTERCOM REVERBERATE THROUGHOUT THE PRISON ON A TYPICAL DAY.

THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARRIVE AT THE INSTITUTION DAY AFTER DAY TO EDUCATE INMATES POSSESS DETERMINATION, FERVOR AND YES—HEROISM—THAT EXEMPLIFIES SO MANY OF THE HEROES IN THIS STUDY.

I WOULD LIKE TO CONCLUDE MY REMARKS THIS MORNING BY QUOTING ANOTHER IN THE STUDY OF HEROES, ELEANOR ROOSEVELT. “THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THE BEAUTY OF THEIR DREAMS.”

BY VIRTUE OF MRS. ROOSEVELTS’S WORDS, I WOULD VENTURE TO SAY THAT THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NJDOC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OWN THE FUTURE. THEY FOLLOW UP THEIR DREAMS OF EDUCATING AND ENLIGHTENING WITH THE OTHER NECESSARY COMPONENT OF SUCCESS—HARD WORK. THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, AND WHAT YOU HAVE YET TO ACCOMPLISH.

N.J. correctional administrators inspire workforce, inmates

At the New Jersey Department of Corrections, educators, corrections officers and administrators have been asked to focus on one process when dealing with inmates: Habilitation.

Rehabilitation isn’t really appropriate for many inmates because many of them have never been exposed to a structured environment or asked to evaluate their own character or values, said Deidre Fedkenheuer, NJDOC spokesperson. You can’t restructure what was never there.

Many inmates fashion their lives after older family members, fictitious television characters or sports figures who don’t always play by the rules. Mistakenly, they confuse celebrities for heroes, she said.

To remedy that situation, NJDOC Commissioner Devon Brown invited The Raoul Wallenberg Committee to offer two, one-day training sessions. Called A Study of Heroes, the program was inspired by, Wallenberg, a Swede who rescued Jews during World War II.

At the height of the war, Wallenberg ingeniously redesigned Sweden’s safe pass, Shutzpass, and liberally distributed the document to thousands of Jews. With funds provided by the United States, Wallenberg purchased numerous buildings in Budapest, Hungary, which were designated safe houses under the protection of Sweden.

He worked tirelessly from July 9, 1944, until January 17, 1945. Wallenberg is officially credited with saving about 100,000 individuals from almost certain death. He is marked as the person who rescued more people using peaceful means than any other person in history.

Fedkenheuer said the NJDOC chose the program from about 35 others because they were looking for one that would help corrections workers and inmates embrace their differences, get along and help each other.

“Most of our inmates will see the light of day again,” said Fedkenheuer. “Some will get out and live next door to me, next door to you. It’s in everyone’s best interest for us to take this opportunity and try to turn lives around and help inmates to find positive ways to impact the lives of others.”

About the program
Wallenberg Committee founder Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim, an authority on heroism, led the program. She said the committee’s mission is to promote the study of heroism. It created an award-winning curriculum that draws a distinction between heroism and celebrity.

“With student audiences, there is silence when I tell the story of Raoul Wallenberg. Before the program, they can not distinguish between the concept of hero and celebrity,” Bernheim said. “But it’s so clear real heroes are needed in our lives.”

More than 20 heroes have been identified and profiled through the program, including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Cesar Chavez, Arthur Ashe, Roberto Clemente and the student protestors at Tianamen Square.

“We know by using only 22 heroes we won’t reach everyone in our sessions. So we show them how to identify true acts of heroism, and they in turn discover the true heroes in their own lives,” Bernheim said.

The program has biographical units for all different levels of reading and comprehension. The open curriculum emphasizes vocabulary, career choices, geography and art, among other things.

The program helps students:

• Identify nonviolent and safe strategies to resolve conflicts.
• Make a positive difference in the world.
• Develop a heightened awareness of heroic acts within an inmate’s own culture, community and family.
• Understand that the concept of hero means different things to different people.
• Recognize that people are not born heroes.
• Know that heroes come in all shapes, sizes, ages, religions, races and ethnicities, and are not always famous or wealthy.

The program at the NJDOC was made possible through a $4,000 Character Education Grant from the New Jersey Department of Education.

For more information about the Raoul Wallenberg Commission, call (212) 499-2695.

A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO THOMAS VERES

Thomas Veres was twenty years old when he met Raoul Wallenberg in the Swedish legation in Budapest. Tom’s father, Paul Veres, was the top society photographer in Hungary, and young Tom was a photographer, too. Wallenberg, with his ability to use everyone’s best talents, immediately assigned Tom to be his “personal photographer.”

At first, this mostly meant that Tom took the photos for Schutzpasses. But as the war progressed, he often became Raoul’s companion as the two of them visited soup kitchens, hospitals and safe houses that Wallenberg and the legation had established. Everywhere they went, Tom took pictures.

For a long while, Tom would go to his parents’ home in the Gerbeaud Palace to develop the films at night. But eventually he was stopped, nearly arrested, and his knapsack full of pictures nearly seized by the Arrow Cross. After that Wallenberg insisted most of Tom’s undeveloped film be sent to Stockholm in the diplomatic pouch—although Tom kept a running darkroom in the Section C offices on Ulloi Street throughout the seige.

Tom was a study in contrasts—a basically shy man with a sly wit and a wicked sense of humor. He managed to see humor and irony in everything, throughout his stints in work camps, and working with Section C. He often spoke of how Wallenberg changed him—changed everyone he worked with—in profound ways. It became accepted to put your life on the line for others. On at least two occasions, Tom accompanied Wallenberg and his driver, Vilmos Langfelder, to train deportments. As always, Tom secretly took pictures. By the second deportment, Tom risked his own life by sneaking to the back of the cattle cars, opening the doors and releasing men from the back. By doing this, he personally saved at least dozens of lives. On the second cattle car, he was caught. It was only through jumping and being pulled to safety into Wallenberg’s car that he was saved.

Not stopping there, he took photos of the released men going back to the safe houses. He also took the portrait of Wallenberg that was used on the U.S. postage stamp.

As the war wound down, Tom went with Wallenberg (to the end of his life, Tom could never refer to him as “Raoul”) and Langfelder to the top of Castle Hill where the three of them watched the approaching Russian troops. Again, Tom took photos and 8 millimeter movies of them against that dramatic backdrop. Those are the photos he most wished he still had.

Tom was there the night the Arrow Cross emptied the Ulloi Street offices and took all of Wallenberg’s people on a death march—only to be rescued by Wallenberg himself at the last minute. Wallenberg waited outside the Gerbeaud Palace two weeks before the end of the siege while Tom went up and unsuccessfully argued with his parents to leave their apartment and be driven to safety. He went with Wallenberg to confront German General Schmidthuber and issue the ultimatum that stopped the pogrom that was to wipe out the entire Central Ghetto—and by doing so saved over 70,000 lives. Wallenberg got Schmidthuber to sign an order prohibiting the pogrom or any further action against the Ghetto. Wallenberg gave Tom the task of reproducing this order in mass quantity overnight without the benefit of electricity. He did it.

Tom knew Raoul’s hiding place at the Hazai bank, and he knew the password to open the giant vault door as the end approached. Tom went there pleading for help to find his parents who had finally been arrested by the Arrow Cross. It was the one time Wallenberg could not help him. It was too late.

But Raoul did ask Tom to join him and Vilmos to go and meet with Russian Marshal Malinovsky so that things could be wrapped up quickly and the Wallenberg Reconstruction Institute could start offering food and medical services and reuniting Hungarian families shattered by war. It was the one time Tom chose not to go. He had to find his parents. As we all know, Wallenberg and Langfelder never returned from that final trip.

Tom escaped from Hungary in 1956 and made his way to New York where he had a successful career as a photographer, eventually joining J. Walter Thompson. He had a wife, one son and two grandchildren. He loved fried calamari and made a great citrus marinade for grilled chicken. For many decades, he did not talk about Wallenberg. It meant too much to him. He never wanted to be seen as profiting from the story. Most people he worked with had no idea of his background.

Tom was therefore not an easy “mark” for journalists. He did not suffer fools lightly and he had a fairly stringent definition of what made you not a fool. In 1990, it took me nearly six months of asking, scheduling, canceling, rescheduling to finally get in to see him. But I had done several articles on Wallenberg when the miniseries had come out, I had seen Tom’s photos, and I knew I had to talk to him for the young adult book I was writing. He cancelled yet another appointment because his beloved dog died. I understood that and sent him a sympathy card. I think it was our mutual love for dogs that finally got me in the door. Which was when Tom’s “trial by fire” started.

When writers or filmmaker came to see him, he started with the question, “Who was the Scarlet Pimpernel?” (Wallenberg reminded him of that fictional character.) If you didn’t know, out you went. (That happened to several journalists both before and after my time!) Fortunately, I knew the answer and asked him if he knew who the Pimpernel Smith was. He didn’t know and was delighted to know there was an actual Pimpernel connection with Wallenberg! But the test wasn’t over. I had to prove I knew the pre-Soviet layout of Budapest, the location of both offices of Section C, and all the names of the all main players that he threw at me. You didn’t come to Tom to do initial research. It was only when he ran out of questions that he decided we could talk.

And once he started talking, the floodgates opened. It all came back to him, in the minutest detail. What people were wearing, the jokes they told, what they had for supper. It wasn’t only his Leica that recorded history. His mind did, as well. Much of what he told me ended up in the biography of Wallenberg we did—I wrote and he contributed the photos.. But there was so much more in Tom’s incredible life that we began sketching out his own autobiography. Unfortunately, there was an unexpected glut of World War Two books coming out at just that time and we weren’t able to find a publisher. That’s too bad because his stories were shocking, truthful, and full of unexpected twists and ribald humor.

When Tom died last summer, the world lost a one-of-a-kind individual. I’m not surprised that Wallenberg recognized him as a comrade almost immediately. Tom would never have let me say this while he was alive, but under the self-deprecating exterior beat a true hero’s heart.

--Sharon Linnea
Author of “Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death”

For additional information about Thomas Veres, you may wish to read his autobiographical article that appeared in “Guideposts Magazine.” The article is available on Beliefnet at the following web address: http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?boardID=14824&pageloc=/story/75/story_7559_1.html

NEW BOOK ON WALLENBERG

A new book, WALLENBERG IS HERE! The True Story About How Raoul Wallenberg Faced Down the Nazi War Machine & the Infamous Eichmann, & Saved Tens of Thousands of Budapest Jews written by Carl Steinhouse was published last month. We have reviewed the book, and we highly recommend it. It is excellent reading and highly informative. For those interested in the heroism of Raoul Wallenberg, this book is a must. The book is available through AMAZON at the price of $15.95.

In Memoriam

Ambassador Per Anger, a Swedish diplomat who with Raoul Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps, and who worked tirelessly to discover the fate of Wallenberg, died on Sunday in Stockholm. He was 88.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/anger.html

HEROES FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION ONLINE FORM

News Bulletin: The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States enthusiastically announces an online format to complement and evaluate its nationally recognized education program, A STUDY OF HEROES.

The NEW online Feedback and Evaluation Form allows educators who are using (have used or plan to use) the HEROES Program to share with us their experiences and that of their students. Those of you who are currently considering the HEROES Program may wish to scroll through the HEROES Feedback and Evaluation Form to see the vast array of instructional possibilities that this program provides. You will also see that the program can be used in a great variety of academic and organizational settings.

Geographic distances and educational diversity are no longer barriers. Rather they are enhancements, allowing members of the ever-expanding HEROES-- community to share their feedback information and evaluation data with us. Such feedback makes the HEROES Program come to life and affords us an opportunity to tell others about your innovative ideas. We'll be able to share new information with others in the field of education, using this NEWSLETTER as our conduit.

The HEROES FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION ONLINE FORM also affords us concrete data that helps us learn about how we might design new features for HEROES so that it responds dynamically to the ever-changing needs of students and educators. The feedback helps us identify teachers, counselors, schools, and organizations that are using the programs in exemplary, new, and creative ways. Potentially it provides us with a magnificent opportunity to feature these educators and organizations in this NEWSLETTER. It also makes it possible for us to invite creative teachers, who we'll learn about through the feedback, to join us in speaking at educational conferences.

The data you share with us lets us paint a colorful and rich picture of the life the HEROES Program takes-on once it reaches the hands, hearts and minds of both teachers and students. We are so excited about this newest innovation! We want YOU to be the first to share your information and experiences with us online.

Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim Chairman

Dr. Kathleen D. Morin Director of Education

The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States was deeply honored to have presented The Raoul Wallenberg Hero For Our Time Award to Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden. Mr. Persson's response on January 12, 2001 to the Russian-Swedish Working Group's report on Raoul Wallenberg was unprecedented. He refused to close the case because he said that there was no unequivocal evidence of what happened to Wallenberg. The Prime Minister said that because of lack of evidence, it is impossible to say that Raoul Wallenberg is dead. He also deemed it important that the Swedish Government continue efforts to obtain any new information that can shed further light on Wallenberg's fate. Mr. Persson apologized on his own behalf and on behalf of the Swedish Government to Raoul Wallenberg's relatives for mistakes that he felt had been made during the past, particularly in the 1940s.

This is only one of the reasons that we presented the Award to a leader who is not afraid to take a stand for what he believes is right, and like any true hero, he is not afraid to act on his beliefs.

James Strock's In the Arena newsletter "Making Heroes"

Nordstjernan Swedish American Newspaper article on "Wallenberg Committee's Message to Texas

GORAN PERSSON PRIME MINISTER OF SWEDEN

Mr. Persson's strong public response on January 12, 2001 to the Russian-Swedish Working Group's report on Raoul Wallenberg was unprecedented. He refused to close the case because, in his view "...there was no unequivocal evidence of what happened to Wallenberg." The Prime Minister said that because of a lack of evidence, it would be impossible to say that Raoul Wallenberg is dead. Furthermore, he deemed it important for the Swedish Government to continue efforts to obtain new information that could throw further light on Wallenberg's fate. He also apologized on his own behalf and on behalf of the Swedish Government to Raoul Wallenberg's relatives for mistakes that he felt had been made during the past, particularly in the 1940s.

The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States is deeply honored to present The Raoul Wallenberg Hero for Our Time Award to Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden. A leader who is not afraid to take a stand for what he believes to be right and, like any true hero, he is never afraid to act on his beliefs.

THE CITY OF NEW YORK THE MAYOR, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, UNIFORMED SERVICES, VOLUNTEERS AND CITIZENS