To honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and of Terezin in particular, the Honorary Consulate General of the Czech Republic-Philadelphia offers this unique series of drawings and watercolors by Helga Weissová-Hosková, who was only 12 years old when she was deported to Terezin with her parents. This collection of artwork chronicles life during the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of a young artist facing an uncertain future. “A Child Artist in Terezin” will be on display at Seton Hill’s Reeves Memorial Library from November 1 – November 18, 2007 and is free and open to the public. The exhibit is sponsored in memory of Laura Sudimack Ridge, mother of former Governor Tom Ridge, and the entire Sudimack family.

Helga Weissová-Hosková was born in Prague on November 10, 1929. She was deported to the Terezín camp with her parents on December 17, 1941. Her brushes and paints packed among her limited luggage, the 12-year-old Hosková created a personal diary of images of life in Terezín. She was sent to Auschwitz with her mother on October 14, 1944, and then to the work camps at Freiberg and Mauthausen. She survived and returned to Prague, where she studied painting with the Czech artist Emil Filla. Hosková lives and is still working as an artist in Prague.

Terezin (Theresienstadt in German), a former garrison town in Czechoslovakia, was used by the Nazis to house thousands of Jewish deportees during World War II. The Nazis presented Terezin to the world as a “model Jewish settlement” and claimed that Jews who lived here – many of whom were famous, wealthy, or artistically talented - would be safer than Jews elsewhere. In reality, Terezin was a place of starvation, illness and brutality. In all, 140,000 Jews were brought to Terezin: 33,000 died there, 88,000 were deported to extermination camps, and 19,000 survived either in Terezin or among the groups transferred to Sweden or Switzerland. Of those deported, 3,000 survived. Weissová-Hosková was among an estimated 132 out of 15,000 children from Terezin to survive.

During the exhibit, Reeves Memorial Library will be open: Monday - Thursday 8:00 a.m.-10:50 p.m.; Friday 8:00 a.m.-4:50 p.m.; Saturday 9:00 a.m.-4:50 p.m.; Sunday 1:00 p.m.-10:50 p.m.

For more information on Helga Weissová-Hosková or the exhibit, please contact the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University by logging on to www.setonhill.edu or calling 724-830-1033.

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) was established on the campus of Seton Hill University in 1987. Seton Hill initiated this national Catholic movement toward Holocaust studies in response to the urging of Pope John Paul II to recognize the significance of the Shoah, the Holocaust, and to "promote the necessary historical and religious studies on this event which concerns the whole of humanity today." The NCCHE has as its primary purpose the broad dissemination of scholarship on the root causes of anti-Semitism, its relation to the Holocaust and the implications from the Catholic perspective of both for today's world. Toward this end the Center is committed to equipping scholars, especially those at Catholic institutions, to enter into serious discussion on the causes of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; shaping appropriate curricular responses at Catholic institutions and other educational sites; sustaining Seton Hill's Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies in Israel through a cooperative program with Yad Vashem, the Isaac Jacob Institute for Religious Law and Hebrew University; encouraging scholarship and research through conferences, publications, workshops for educators, and similar activities; sponsoring local events on the Holocaust and related topics in the University and the community and enhancing Catholic-Jewish relations.

Seton Hill University, founded by the Sisters of Charity, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pa. Chartered in 1918, Seton Hill offers more than 30 undergraduate programs and nine graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized three times by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named a Best Baccalaureate College by U.S. News & World Report, one of the Best in the Northeast by The Princeton Review, and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. In addition, Seton Hill has been named a University of Distinction by Colleges of Distinction, an organization founded by a group of concerned parents, educators and admissions professionals. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.

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Media contacts:

Wilda Kaylor, Associate Director, National Catholic Center on Holocaust Education
724-830-1033/kaylor@setonhill.edu

Becca Baker, Associate Director of Media Relations
724-830-1069/ 724-689-3599 (cell)/ bbaker@setonhill.edu