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WHY Study History?
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(San Diego, 2017)  The primary purpose for this website is to promote the importance of education in general and to promote Holocaust scholarship more specifically through publications and links for family, friends, students, academic colleagues, and the general public. I firmly believe that education can free us from all the conditions of human existence that seek to enslave us, whether imposed on us by others or personally empowered as a result of our own ignorance. These webpages contain: (1) My personal philosophy concerning the study of history as a means to personal and societal enlightenment. (2) Current information on the award-winning documentary "An Open Door: Holocaust Haven in the Philippines" for which I am Associate Producer (3) My PhD research and publications into the Holocaust Odyssey of Cantor Joseph Cysner and the rescue of refugee Jews in the Philippines. (4) Information on national and international sites of Holocaust Memorialization and WHY I believe the study of the Holocaust can enlighten our choices in life. (5) Links and bibliographic information for data used on my webpages. (6) Clips from oral histories and survivor interviews I have conducted. (7) Up-to-date information on my current publications and CV.

I hope you enjoy your visit. Come Again!


I would very much love to hear from you after your visit to any of the webpages on my website. You may contact me at: bonniesbiz@hotmail.com.


WHY Study History?

It has been my experience that most of us LOVE stories of the past but HATE the study of history. Here I give my personal philosophy and practices about WHY we should study history and HOW history should be studied. It is probably unlike anything you have ever heard from an academic in the field.



PhD Research

  • Info about my book "Philippine Sanctuary: A Holocaust Odyssey" through University of Wisconsin Press
  • Info about professional work: film "An Open Door" and publications on refugees in Philippines
  • Info about the field of Public History, the discipline & its careers
  • info and links about the Holocaust stories of Joseph and Sylvia Cysner
  • Summaries of research travel, repositories visited and discoveries made
  • Info on the Zbaszyn Film Project "See You Next Year in Jerusalem"
  • Info on Israeli Embassy's exhibit on "History of Jews in the Philippines"
  • Info on the "Open Doors Monument" outside Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Video clips of oral history interviews with Holocaust Survivors of the Philippines
  • "You Tube" Video Link to my 9/11 Tribute in honor of Martha Stevens
  • Interview clips with WWII Marine Vets of the VMF 215 Corsairs Squadron
  • Visit with John Blankenship & Video of his extensive WWII Memorabilia Coll.
  • Interview with Abe Shragge at San Diego's Veteran Memorial Museum

Holocaust Memory

  • "A Quest to Qualify" - Personal Reflective Essay on my Holocaust Odyssey
  • Sites of memoriaization and commemoration in the USA and Israel
  • Sites of camps, prisons, and ghettos in Poland and The Czech Republic
  • Sites of Holocaust Memory and The Third Reich in Austria & Germany

Research Links & Bibliographic Information

  • Links to archives, libraries, museums, and Holocaust memorials I visited
  • Links to Jewish Studies Programs, conferences, exhibits, and more
  • Bibliographic entries for sources used  for the historical content on Holocaust memorialization sites




UC Santa Barbara - Public History Field

Public History began at Santa Barbara in 1976. Since then, over 100 students have trained in UCSB's program to apply their historical skills, knowledge and insights in public settings -- in museums and heritage sites, businesses, public agencies, non-profit groups and private foundations, and myriad other places. The UCSB program prepares historians as historians, as broadly-trained scholar-professionals fully versed in the literature, methods, and interpretive debates of the venerable discipline, but also especially conscious of and practiced in the special challenges and resources distinctive to the public practice of History. The program offers concentrations in four areas: public policy, community, and business history, and public memory and history presentation. Other areas of research interest are supported by individual faculty, interdepartmental, and intercampus committees. Public History students regularly take advantage of the History Department's large and distinguished faculty to integrate their particular research and reading interests into their program. I taught specialty classes in Holocaust History and Memorialization in Summer Sessions.

San Diego State University

San Diego State University is the oldest and largest higher education institution in the San Diego region. Since its founding in 1897, the university has grown to become a leading public research university. Each year, SDSU provides more than 35,000 students academic choices from 91 undergraduate majors, 78 master's programs and 22 doctoral degree programs. SDSU's Department of History is among the largest departments in the university, serving over 5500 SDSU students every semester, including 300 majors and pre-majors and 70 M.A. students. I am an alumnus of SDSU and I am also a Lecturer in History at my alma mater as well.

Grossmont College

Grossmont College is one of two college campuses in the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District within the community of El Cajon, California.The HISTORY DEPARTMENT offers an array of both survey and specialized courses geared toward helping students complete requirements for a Grossmont A.A. degree, lower division humanities/social science requirements for university transfer, or personal intellectual enrichment. I have taught both semesters of World History, Ancient History, and Western Civlization at Grossmont College. 

Southwestern College

Established in 1961, Southwestern College in Chula Vista is one of 112 public community colleges in the state of California and the only institute of higher education located in the southern portion of San Diego County. Serving approximately 18,000 students annually, Southwestern College offers more than 285 associate degree and certificate options. A host of noncredit courses designed to enhance personal and professional development are also offered through the College’s Continuing Education department. The Southwestern Community College District also includes Centers for Higher Education in National City, San Ysidro, and Otay Mesa, another site where I teach both sessions of American Civilization.

San Diego City College

San Diego City College provides lower division and general education courses that lead to certificates, associate degrees, or transfer to a four-year college or university; career technical education programs that meet specific industry needs, upgrade the employment skills of students and fulfill licensing requirements of the state of California as well as contribute to the economic development of our region; basic skills instruction to assist all students in meeting their educational goals; and essential student support services for all students. Values San Diego City College is a multicultural institution committed to providing open access to all who can benefit from instruction and to meeting the diverse and ever-changing educational, cultural, and economic needs of the urban core and surrounding communities of San Diego. They are committed to the tradition of academic freedom and responsibility, to employee empowerment, and to maintaining a climate that promotes learning, understanding and respect for students, faculty, staff, community, and the environment. As City College prepares world citizens in the twenty-first century, we recognize that the aim of education is the development of the whole person who is prepared to be an active citizen and to participate in a global community.



The Jewish Historical Society of San Diego, Archives

The San Diego Jewish community is the second oldest organized Jewish community in California and it led Southern California Jewry with the first recorded religious observance in 1851, the first Jewish marriage in 1853, and the first congregation in 1861. It is the mission of the JHSSD to collect and preserve San Diego's Jewish History. I am priviledged to work as its archivist. To learn more about this organization and how you can support its archival mission, please follow the link above. You may now search the collections of the JHSSD online ---> Past Perfect Museum Online

Western Jewish Studies Association

The Western Jewish Studies Association was founded by Dr. Lawrence Baron, the Abraham Nasatir Endowed Chair in Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University, in 1995 for the purpose of providing a forum for Jewish Studies scholars of the Western United States. Through the WJSA conferences that are sponsored every year at varying locations on the West Coast, professional educators, academics, graduate students, and other interested parties may share their original research and interests in the growing field of Jewish pedagogy. I serve as the Executive Administrator of the WJSA, working under the direction of Dr. Baron.

Channel Islands National Park Service

Channel Islands National Park is one of North America's magnificent treasures. Close to the California mainland, yet worlds apart, the park encompasses five of the eight California Channel Islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara) and their ocean environment, preserving and protecting a wealth of natural and cultural resources. The park bridges two biogeographical provinces, and in a remarkably small place, harbors the biologic diversity of nearly 2,500 miles of the North American coast. The Channel Islands are home to over 2,000 terrestrial plants and animals, of which 145 are found nowhere else in the world. Like the Galapagos Islands of South America, isolation has allowed evolution to proceed independently on the islands. Marine life ranges from microscopic plankton to the blue whale, the largest animal to live on earth. Archeological and cultural resources span a period of more than 10,000 years of human habitation. I have personally hiked all the Channel Islands except Santa Barbara for contextual background information for Oral Histories I collected as an independent Oral Historian for the NPS.