2010 SUMMER INSTITUTE

Mr. Joseph Diamond was taken to Auschwitz in 1944. He survived the Holocaust and moved to Buffalo, NY where he worked for years building homes in the area. He is on the board of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo.

Mr. Charles Zappo served in the United States Army as part of the 232rd Infantry Regiment attached to 42nd Infantry Division from 1943 - 1946. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was present for the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps.

Dr. Sol Messinger was born on June 16th 1932, in Berlin, Germany. Sol and his family left together on May 14th 1939 on the passenger craft St. Louis. It was a two week voyage to Cuba. The ship was turned away and the majority of the ship's passengers were sent to death camps.

Mr. Greg Peterson is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown. He is a partner in the law firm of Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine & Huber LLP.

Ken Hechler assisted President Roosevelt in the preparation of the thirteen-volume Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He interviewed key Nazi leaders during the Nuremburg Trials. Later he accepted the post of special assistant in charge of research for President Truman. In 1958, Hechler was elected a US Congressman of West Virginia and was re-elected for eighteen years.

Mr. Eli M. Rosenbaum is the director of the U.S. DOJ Office of Special Investigations since 1995. He and his office seek to root out and deport those who assisted in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution but somehow made it into the United States.

Professor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law was the founding Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, an international war crimes tribunal from 2002 - 2005. Professor Crane was the first American since Justice Robert Jackson and Telford Taylor at Nuremberg, in 1945, to be the Chief Prosecutor of an international war crimes tribunal.

Awadiya Yahia is an adult education and literacy professional who came to Buffalo after leaving the Darfur region of Sudan. Awadiya left Darfur amid the genocide that has plagued the region for nearly a decade. She now works as an activist promoting human rights.

Mr. John Heffernan is the Director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience. Mr. Heffernan has worked with several humanitarian NGO?s during his illustrious career as an advocate for human rights around the world.

Mr. Lee Cutler, New York State United Teachers secretary-treasurer, is a long time community and union activist. Mr. Cutler oversees the NYSUT social justice agenda.

Mr. Victor Habinshuti is a Rwandan Genocide survivor who generously and courageously shares his story with the students of the Summer Institute. Victor fled Rwanda with his brother during the genocide in 1994. He is currently completing a degree in engineering at the University at Buffalo.

Rep. Brian Higgins is the United States Representative of New York's 27th district. Higgins has sponsored 22 bills and co-sponsored 790 bills during his time in congress. In 2005, Higgins travelled to Chad where he interacted with refugees from the genocide ravaged Darfur region of Sudan.

Myo Thant, a pro-democracy youth leader in Burma, spent 17 months under house arrest as a key aide to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He fled because he wouldn't compromise his beliefs and knew he'd spend much of his life under house arrest, in prison -or worse.

Law Eh Soe was one of only two photojournalists to chronicle the monks' pro-democracy uprising two years ago in his native Burma. He fled after government soldiers shot and killed a Japanese journalist.