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Western Washington University to offer Holocaust studies

WWU will be the first public university in the state with such a minor.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Editor's note: The video above was originally published in May 2019.

Students at Western Washington University can minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies with a new program that will be offered starting this fall.

The Bellingham Herald reports the university announced Wednesday that in conjunction with the program officials will honor Nazi concentration camps survivor Noémi Ban of Bellingham in October.

Ban died in June at age 96.

Also see | Survivor helps pass law for Holocaust education in Washington schools

Officials said she survived Nazi persecution and the concentration camps, but her family was murdered by Nazis and their collaborators.

University officials said she inspired the new Holocaust Studies minor, along with the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, which opened in 2016.

Ray Wolpow Institute director Sandra Alfers said Western is the first public university in the state with such a minor.

Also see | Instagram story from girl's journal during Holocaust aims to teach new generation

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