DoNotHate DoNotHate

During her time as a member of Folketing, the Danish Parliament, Özlem Cekic's inbox was inundated with hate mail and threats. She first responded by deleting the emails, but then she started replying and inviting those who had sent her abusive messages to meet and engage in dialogue. She calls it #dialoguecoffee, as the meetings generally happen over coffee, and usually at the home of the person who wrote the message. She has met neo-Nazis, racists and religious extremists as she works to try to understand the origin of the hate, find a common language and develop a toolkit for building bridges.

DoNotHate Podcast’s third guest speaker is Celia Kener, a Holocaust survivor and a speaker. 

Celia Kener was born in 1935 in Lvov, Poland. When the Germans invaded in 1941, life totally changed. Her father was drafted into the Russian army while the rest of her family moved into the ghetto. Celia’s mother was selected for a labor camp and was periodically brought in to visit the family on weekends. Celia’s mother found a childless Catholic couple and promised her daughter to them because she didn’t think that she would survive.

Celia was eventually reunited with her mother. The family was liberated by the Russians. Her father escaped the Russian army to an Uzbekistan Displaced Persons camp under an assumed name and survived.

Celia and her parents came to the US in 1949.

Together, we talked about her childhood pre war, hiding days in the ghetto, isolation, the importance of being an upstander, and her journey to the United States after spending years in the displaced refugee camps. Most importantly we talked about the importance of remembering the Holocaust and  why it’s important to keep telling the stories of over 6 million mothers, fathers, grandchildren, children, brothers and sisters, all murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the Holocaust.

DoNotHate Podcast’s second guest speaker is Aaron Stark, an author and a TEDx Speaker with more than 12 Million Views.

Aaron Stark is a man who kept a dark secret for 25 years. His secret: He almost became a mass shooter. On a Facebook post two years ago, he let the world know about his dark thoughts and now, he is spreading the message that there is hope in everyone. Aaron Stark, coming from a disadvantaged background, was abused during childhood,  exposed to drugs, moved from one place to another, changed schools frequently, bullied at home and school, and today he is achieving remarkable things and being a source of hope for others. 

In this episode, we talked about Aaron's background and childhood, events that almost led him to commit a horrible crime, power of friendship, xenophobia and bullying at schools, school shootings, and finally overcoming hate with love. 

Season I Episode II

I Was Almost a School Shooter 

Interview Guide

1. What kind of childhood did you have? What kind of a house were you born into?


2. After you ran away from your parents, you were homeless for quite a while. And you said that you were either going to kill yourself or do something about your situation. Then you made the brave decision to call the social services. Even  though it happened back in the 90’s, it’s a huge example of how we systematically fail the most innocent and valuable part of our society which is children. Can you tell us how you decided to make the brave decision to seek help and how it failed?

3. You’re very open about how you self harmed yourself during the most difficult years of childhood and you even carry the scars to this day. When things get rough self harm can be seen as one of the ways to ease the psychological pain or make you feel more in control over your life. I want to ask you this question because self harm usually brings a lot of shame with itself. How did you start self harming and when you wanted to stop were there any resources that you could reach?


4. When did you first start having thoughts about shooting up your school? How did your pain transform into anger?

5. Can you take us to the day that you estimated to actually execute your plan and shoot up your school?  What stopped you?

6. How can we realize if a person sitting in our classroom or workplace is in the same situation today? And most importantly what would your advice be regarding how to approach them?


7. The journey to defeat hate with love is challenging. What inspires you everyday to continue fighting for peace?

8. How do you think youth can make an impact when it comes to improving our society as its future building stones? What is our role?