memory & action spring 2013

7/27/2019 Memory & Action Spring 2013

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1 UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM MAgAzINE mm.

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Complicity initiative will challenge ourunderstanding of the Holocaust

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The Museum weaves the lessonsof the Holocaust through the

fabric of American society

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Introducing Holocaust Historyto Undergrads

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A Final Love Letter

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Educating Americas Leaders

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from the Director

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Tom A. Bernsein

Vic Caiman

Joshua B. Bolen

dicSara J. Bloomeld

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Lorna Miles

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Andrew Holliner

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Amy Donovan

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Barbara E. Marine

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A ublicaion o he

Unied Saes Holocaus Memorial Museum

100 Raoul Wallenber place, SW

Washinon, DC 20024-2126

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Send inquiries o [email protected].

Coyrih2013

Cv: Marcelle Faust and Eric Hamberg were featured in the Museums tribute to Holocaustsurvivors and World War II veterans at the New York tour stop on March 3. Faust (left)was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1927. Her family ed to Paris, Marseilles, and nallySwitzerland. They immigrated to the United States in 1946. Hamberg (right) was born inMannheim, Germany, in 1921. He escaped to England in 1939 and eventually immigratedto the United States. He was drafted into the US Army in 1942 and received a bronze starand a purple heart for his service. US Holocaust Memorial Museum Av: Museum DirectorSara J. Bloomeld speaks at the New York tribute to Holocaust su rvivors and World War IIveterans on March 3, 2013. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

IT Is hArd To belIeVe ThAT IT WAs 20 yeArs Ago ThIs AprIl when ona bitterly cold, rainy day, the Museum was dedicated by PresidentBill Clinton, Founding Chairman Elie Wiesel, and Chairman HarveyMeyerhoff. President Clinton described the Museum as an ally ofeducation against ignorance, of humility against arrogance, aninvestment in a secure future against whatever insanity lurks ahead.

Elie told the story of how his mother and millions of other Jewswere abandoned by an apathetic world. What have we learned?

We have learned...that we are all responsible, and indifference is asin.... And, Mr. President, I cannot not tell you something. I havebeen in the former Yugoslavia.... As a Jew I am saying that we mustdo something.

In calling on the president to do for others what should havebeen done for the Jews of Europe, Elie fullled his vision of anAmerican institution that helps shape our national discourse.In 1979, he wrote: The memorial should be built in Washington,DC.... By reminding us of the potential for violence in humansociety, the Museum can contribute to a strengthening of thedemocratic process. In this issue, you will read about the manyways the Museum inuences American society.

In the presence of those who lived this historythe Holocaustsurvivors, World War II veterans, and rescuers gathering at theMuseum this month to mark our anniversarywe are announcingthe launch of a comprehensive campaign that will allow theMuseum to ensure the permanence of Holocaust memory as arelevant, transformative force in the 21st century.

Twenty years ago, putting Holocaust memory on the NationalMall was bold, but we need to be even bolder. We need to put iton the world map. We are fortunate to have supporters who sharethis visionand who know that the lessons of the Holocaust inspireunderstanding and action, and also that those lessons are moreurgent than ever.

who will telltheir stories?

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people you meetThe Museum on Tour

ThIs pAge, CloCKWIse roM Top rIghT: em zan colors a puzzle piece for theBuilding Blocks of Hope art project with her mother, hia zan.Tn Acvpoints out a location on a map where survivors and veterans placed pins to marktheir locations at the end of World War II. Acevedo, a US Army medic, was a prisonerof war in the Berga forced labor camp who was liberated while on a death march.Clothing donated by ei on, who brought it to the United States when her familyemigrated from Austria in 1939. svn Vi performs family research for Miiam i(right). Her friend Kaain gc looks on. Actor Mac si performs the playTime Capsule in a Milk Can: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Secret Archives of the WarsawGhetto. Holocaust survivor Ma s holds one of the photographs he donated tothe Museum.Photos of Acevedo, Spiegel: Todd Bigelow/US Holocaust Memorial Museum;all others: US Holocaust Memorial Museum

ThIs pAge, CloCKWIse roM Top rIghT: sn an Aania Cn color puzzlepieces for the Building Blocks of Hope art project. Ca Ann Kin A holds apassport that is part of the collection she donated to the Museum. The passportbelonged to her aunt Marie sterreicher. Historian p ha discusses theunanswerable question: why the Holocaust happened. Miiam bnin discoversher birth certicate thanks to the Museums family research staff. g smanand zvi ga pose with the honor guard. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

boCA rAToN, lorIdA 12/9/12

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SpRINg 2013 | MeMory&ACTIoNNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM MAgAzINE mm.

To MArK ITs 20 ANNIVersAry,he Museum is on a naional our o enae

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nvaain.mm.o see addiional hoos, sories, and videos rom he evens.


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UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM MAgAzINE mm.

The honoree will receive a card wih imaes rom he

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InCelebration

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honorsomeone

speCialDr. Richard King (above) is a professor ofcomparative ethnic studies at WashingtonState University in Pullman and the recipientof a Curt C. and Else Silberman follow-upgrant. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Introducing

Holocaust Historyto UndergradsoN AugusT 5, 2012, WhIle d r. rIChArd KINgwas completing his term as a researchscholar at the Museum, an avowed whitesupremacist opened re at a Sikh templein Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six.

As a professor of comparative ethnicstudies at Washington State Universityin Pullman, King felt that his efforts toteach the dangers of hate had becomeeven more urgent. He immediately satdown to record his thoughts. In an articlepublished online byEbony,he wrote,[When] the media uses words likederanged to describe [the shooter], theydivert attention away from how much heembodies white power todayits racism,its anger, its subculture, its networks.

As chair of the Department of Critical

Culture, Gender, and Race Studies, Kinghas found that most students view racehatred in terms of black and white,with less understanding of the historicroots of discrimination. They are moreaware of neo-Nazis than of HitlersNational Socialist Party.

Providing his students with historicalcontext to understand contemporaryantisemitism enables them to grapplewith hate speech as a serious issue withpotentially dire consequences, not just

as rhetoric spewed by a radical few.Understanding historic ideas aboutantisemitism enhances understandingsof current formulations, King said.He hopes to compel his students toask difcult questions: How do whitesupremacists exploit popular culture?Why is antisemitism at the heart of thewhite power movement? Why does itpersist in American culture?

King has long used Museumresources to help him develop coursesthat address those topics. In 2005, heattended a Curt C. and Else Silbermanseminar at the Museums Center forAdvanced Holocaust Studies. Thoseannual seminars promote the study andteaching of the Holocaust, particularly

in locations with scant offerings on thetopic. Before King arrived at Pullman,only one course on Holocaust historywas offered, and no courses dealtexplicitly with antisemitism. Kingnotes that he was drawn to the PacicNorthwest because of the white powermovements prominence there.

Last year, King received a Silbermanfollow-up grant for higher educationfaculty to return to the Center. Heused his time in residence to work on

the syllabus for his new course, RaceScience and Society. The Museumprovided King with what he describesas the intellectual space to nalizeboth the course content and themanuscript for his book, White Powerand Popular Culture.

In addition to supporting the workof scholars whose research and teach-ing inuence students at campusesaround the world, the Museum has anumber of public education initiativesthat focus on an tisemitism, includingan exhibition on the antisemiticworkThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the translation of the online HolocaustEncyclopedia into 14 languages, anda monthly series of interviews about

contemporary antisemitism withthinkers from diverse backgrounds.Visit ushmm.org/antisemitismpodcastto listen to Voices on Antisemitism.A CD set of select interviews can also bepurchased online in the Museum Shop.

hat you do mattersSUppORTINg UNIVERSITY pROFESSORS


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SpRINg 2013 | MeMory&ACTIoNUNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM MAgAzINE mm.

escuing the evidenceA LETTER FROM AUSCHWITz

IT TesTIIes To The loVe o A MoTherand the dignity of a victim.

Vilma Grunwald wrote the briefletter to her husband, Kurt, the dayshe was killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau:The famous cars are already here, andwe are waiting for it to begin. I took ve

bromides; they made me tired but Iam not excited. I am completely calm.

Vilma Grunwald was in the rareposition of having a pencil and apiece of paper because she was in theso-called Theresienstadt family campat Auschwitz-Birkenau. The SS campauthorities held deportees from theTheresienstadt camp-ghetto in thisseparate compound because alive theymight be useful to maintain the ctionthat deportation from Theresienstadt

did not mean death. While in the familycamp, inmates remained with theirrelatives and were able to keep somepersonal items.

In summer 1944, ve weeks afterthe International Red Cross visitedTheresienstadt, the SS liquidated the

family camp, after transferring able-bodied men, including Kurt, into thegeneral camp population and sendingmost to the gas chambers. During thisprocess, a friend grabbed the Grunwaldsyounger son, Frank, by the shoulderand pushed him into a group of olderchildren, saving his life. Their olderson, John, who walked with a limp,was among those to be killed. Vilmavoluntarily decided to accompany Johnto the gas chambers. She wrote to Kurt,

Youmy only and dearest onedonot blame yourself for what happened.It was our destiny.... Take care of thelittle golden boy and dont spoil himtoo much with your love.

Judith Cohen, director of theMuseums photographic reference

collection, said the letter is the onlyartifact she knows of that showssomeones state of mind as she wasabout to be killed. Moreover, shehad the presence of mind to write toher husband and to worry about heryounger child. I think that is what isreally so incredible.

The Museum learned of the letterthrough a documentary,Mias Fugue,which tells Frank Grunwalds story.(He was known as Mia during his

childhood.) Two high school teacherswho are alumni of the MuseumsArthur and Rochelle Belfer conferencesfor educators, Sean Gaston and JenniferGoss, created the documentary withtheir students. In the lm, Grunwaldreads his mothers letter and tells

about discovering it after his fathersdeath in 1967.

When Cohen watched the lm andsaw Frank Grunwald unfold the small,yellowed letter from his mother, sheknew the Museum needed to preserveit. Grunwald had already asked thelmmakers about donating the letter,so when Cohen ew to Indiana tomeet him, she returned with the letterin hand. It is slated to appear in theMuseums Permanent Exhibition.

T: Vilma and Kurt Grunwald enjoy a mealin the countryside before the start of WorldWar II. Av: Mia (Frank) Grunwald posesa couple of months after his liberation fromGunskirchen and shortly after his return toCzechoslovakia in 1945. US Holocaust Memorial

Museum, courtesy of Frank Grunwald

T: A Museum conservator holdsthe letter Vilma Grunwald sent toher husband the day she was killed.US Holocaust Memorial MuseumAv: Frank Grunwald duringlming of the documentaryMias

Fugue. Of donating the letter to theMuseum, he said, I wanted otherpeople, students and children, to seeit, as a document to what happened.

Matthew Goss/Mias Fugue

A

LoveFinal

Letter


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How the Collaboration and Complicityinitiative will challenge our

understanding of the Holocaust

NosIMple

ANsWers

Av: Holocaust survivor StevenFenvess story will be included inSome Were Neighbors. In this June2012 photo, he speaks before aMuseum audience. acin: CuratorSusan Bachrach presents plans for

Some Were Neighborsto a group ofscholarly advisors in June 2010. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Museums laes secial exhibiion, sm W Ni:

Caain an Cmici in hca, oens his Aril ater

ve years o lannin, research, and desin. Visiors amiliar wih he

permanen Exhibiion will see a marked conras.

It wont be the Holocaust exhibit youmight expect, said Susan Bachrach,the exhibitions curator. To helpbridge the past and present, it willuse color and even contemporaryphotography in a few places.

But the different aesthetics dontsignal a departure from core Holocausthistory. Some Were Neighborswilladdress the common misperceptionthat Adolf Hitler and a small groupof Nazi leaders were alone responsiblefor the Holocaust. It will focus onthe actions of the tens of thousandsof ordinary people who were activeparticipants or complicit in the

destruction of European Jewry.The documentation of widespreadcollaboration and complicity ofindividuals like ourselves in theevents of the Holocaust shoulddisturb everyone, Bachrach said.

Staff designing the exhibitionfocused on engaging the broadest possi-ble audience by examining the behaviorof people who were in close proximityto victims, said Sarah Ogilvie, director

of the Museums National Institutefor Holocaust Education. Why is itthat people willingly and sometimesenthusiastically participate in thesuffering of people they know?

The story told by Museumvolunteer Steven Fenves exempliesthe complexity staff hope to introduceinto the publics understanding ofthe Holocaust. In his oral history, aportion of which will be shown in theexhibition and online, Fenves recallsthe moment his family was removedfrom its apartment in Subotica, Serbia:People were lined up, up the stairs,up to the door of the apartment,

waiting to ransack whatever we leftbehind, cursing at us, yelling at us,spitting at us as we left.

Did you know any of them, theinterviewer asks? Among them wasour cook, Fenves replies. She wentin, she grabbed the cookbook andshe grabbed...this binder, and shovedinto it all the artwork that she couldshove into it.... And she gave it backto us when we came back.


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SpRINg 2013 | MeMory&ACTIoN 1UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM MAgAzINE mm.

tive of eyewitnesses to the Holocaustand their actions, good and bad. Sincethe late 1990s, Museum contractorNathan Beyrak has compiled rare videotestimony from eyewitnesses, fundedby the Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony

initiative. The collection now encom-passes more than 1,600 interviews withwitnesses, perpetrators, and victims inPoland, Lithuania, Moldova, Bosnia,Ukraine, and other countries. For therst time, these interviews will appearin an exhibition.

Explaining their foresight infunding the collection of testimonyfrom witnesses and perpetrators, Jeffand Toby Herr said recently that they

A WIder INITIATIVe

What might not be apparent to Museumvisitors is that the exhibition is part ofa wider initiative extending beyondthe Museums walls. A special website,training programs, and educationalresources will draw on the questionsraised by Some Were Neighbors, whichwill guide the work of the NationalInstitute for Holocaust Educationover the next ve years.

Whether visitors walk into theexhibition or visit online, we havedesigned the experience to have thesame outcomes, said Tim Kaiser, theMuseums director of educationalinitiatives. Those outcomes includeincreasing understanding of how theHolocaust was possible, complicating

beliefs about how individuals canrespond to hatred and genocide,and inspiring visitors and viewersto apply this new understanding totheir own lives.

New primary source material usedin the exhibition presents the perspec-

If youre interested in humanbeings, how they treat each other,and why, this will interest you.

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The secial exhibiion SOME WERE NEIgHBORS:COLLABORATION AND COMpLICITY IN THEHOLOCAUST will use a new echnique o comlicaevisiors' undersandin o he Holocaus. Firs, heywill be shown ar o a hoorah. Then, he ullhoorah will be revealed. When lookin a heimae a let, or examle, visiors will rs s ee hesmilin onlookers. Then hey will see he ull imae

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were interested in it as a balance andcomplement to the large volume ofsurvivor testimony that was beingcollected at the time. We needed toknow what was in perpetrators headsand hearts in order to prevent it fromhappening again, Toby Herr said.

This collection is truly incredible,Kaiser said. These eyewitnesses offera different and oftentimes uniqueperspective on the events of theHolocaust that has seldom been heard.The educational potential of theseinterviews is immense.

Testimonies from the HerrCollection and other sources will beshown in a theater within the exhibition.On the website, testimonies will beavailable in the original language with

English subtitles.

CoMplICATINg uNdersTANdINg

Kaiser, who is developing resourcesfor use by secondary-school teachers,recently presented several testimoniesto some of the Museums key teacherpartners. In the testimonies, a Polishrailroad worker recalls shunting railcarsfull of people into Treblinka, thenremoving them later, empty; womendescribe how as girls they watchedfrom the window of their home as

Jews were executed; and a Lithuaniandescribes how under German authorityhe participated in the shooting ofBelarusian Jews in pits.

So what do we, as educators, dowith those? Kaiser asked the teachers.

The answers came slowly. Someteachers worried the testimonies wouldbe as difcult to use as they are to watch.For example, would the attempts bythose complicit to justify their actionsfeed into students tendency to simplify

the history? Others said the testimoniesare a goldmine, raising fundamentalquestions about human behavioraslong as the teachers give their studentsthe building blocks to understand thatthere are no simple explanations andthat understanding is not the samething as condoning individuals actions.Educators will grapple with theseissues at an international symposiumthe Museum plans to convene in 2014

The exhibiion will conclude wih a sace ha encouraes visiors o"refec and share" heir houhs. Usin ouch screens, visiors willchoose a hoo or quoaion (such as hose o he rih) ha refecshe exhibiion heme and be invied o share heir senimens wihheir social neworks.

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pand: stmb 1321, 2014

rwanda: 2014

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For more information, contact Nadia Ficara at nfcaa@hmm..

YOUR COMpANIONS will include Museum scholars.Exers will uide you. Local luminaries will discuss modernand hisoric quesions. Join old riends and make newones wih whom you share an i ndelible connecionyourcommimen o learnin he lessons o he Holocaus.

p, a: In July 2008, Museum supporters visit Poland with the International Travel Program. Marcin Olesinski/US Holocaust Memorial Museump, ma, m: Meeting with the Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An (far right) in Phnom Penh. US Holocaust Memorial MuseumAttending the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Bucharest with an ofcial delegation including Romanian President Traian Ba sescu(second from left). US Holocaust Memorial Museum Examining documents in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland.Marcin Olesinski/US Holocaust Memorial Museum

JOIN A UNIqUE gROUp FOR AN

exClusIVe JourNey

During the Holocaust, some people c hose to resist. In June 1942, Jews in Paris wereordered by the occupying German authorities to wear yellow Star of David patches.

Some youths in Paris made their own yellow stars out of paper and wore them to protestthe treatment of Jews. Student Maurice Lo mbart (right) was arrested for wearing ayellow star marked Swing, the name of an anti-authoritarian youth group. (Swing)

Archives de la Prfecture de PoliceParis, (Lombart) Mmorial de la Shoah/CDJC/coll. Lombart

to explore the model Collaborationand Complicity offers for Holocausteducation.

The work on this theme upends thetraditional victim-perpetrator-bystanderparadigm of Holocaust education.Collaboration and Complicity blursthose categories by focusing onthe majority of Europeans, whosemotivations during the Holocaust werenot always clear, dened, or simple.Sometimes its the little acts that aremost disturbing, Kaiser said. Theordinariness is what captures you.

To ensure visitors understand alter-natives existed to acting in ways thatharmed the victims, the exhibition alsohighlights individuals who chose tohelp. One section focuses on how peoplechose to act in ways good and bad. It

shows that the behavior of people whowitnessed the Holocaust could be incon-sistent. In other words, it shows visitorsthe possibility of making better choices.

It looks at how relationships holdup or fray in times of intense pressure,said Edna Friedberg, curator of theCollaboration and Complicity website.If youre interested in human beings,how they treat each other, and why,this will interest you.

With the exhibition and websiteabout to launch, the question is howwill people relate to the theme? Theirresponses will inform the initiative,providing direction for the creation ofadditional Museum programming andresources. In a year well know more,Kaiser said, about the audiences thistopic resonates with.

For example, Kaiser said, shouldwe focus our efforts on creatinga curriculum developed aroundcommunity dialogue to be used bychurches, synagogues, and civic groups?Rather than choosing in advance allthe audiences programs will target,staff will see how visitors react afterthe exhibitions public opening. Inaddition to observing how visitorsrespond to the content and hiring

professional evaluators, Museumeducators will learn from what visitorsshare in a reection space at the endof the exhibition. The space will beimportant in helping visitors processthe disequilibrium introduced bythe exhibition and its relevance totheir own lives.

We hope it will inspire, Friedbergsaid. We show that there were choiceseven in a time of war and genocide.


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MoNuMeNT ToA

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That the Museum became anotherkind of monument to freedom was no

accident. The founders of the Museumenvisioned a unique kind of memorialto the victims of the Holocaust. Manywere themselves Holocaust survivors,who had seen rsthand the horricconsequences of unchecked hatredand abuse of power. They knew thatthe institutions of democracy did notprevent the Nazis crimes. And theyunderstood that the Museum couldserve not only as a lesson about thepast but also as a warning about thefuture, reminding all Americans aboutthe need for constant vigilance in afree society. Elie Wiesel, the Museumsfounding chairman, called the Museuma living memorial.

On the Museums 20th anniversary,America reaps the benet of the found-ers foresight. As a national institution,the Museum has woven the lessons ofthe Holocaust through the fabric ofAmerican society, from school curricula,to traveling exhibitions, to trainingprograms for the military and govern-

ment. Rooted in its physical structureon the National Mall, the Museum hastaught this history beyond its wallsand beyond the nations borders, wherethe lessons of the Holocaust are moreurgent than ever.

plANNINg The MuseuM

The 197879 Presidents Commissionon the Holocaust, chaired by Wiesel,recognized that the new museum hadto include American history in its focus:

Special emphasis would also be placed onthe American aspect of the Holocaustthe absence of American response(exclusion of refugees, denials of theHolocaust, etc.), the American liberationof the camps, the reception of survivorsafter 1945, the lives rebuilt in this countryand their contribution to American societyand civilization....

The members of the PresidentsCommission believed that the Museumshould speak to both American historyand American values. They emphasizedthe importance of situating the Museumin Washington, DC, because studyingthe Holocaust raises fundamentalquestions about government, the abusesof unbridled power, the fragility of socialinstitutions, the need for national unity,and the functioning of government.What better place to ask these questionsabout the role of national governmentthan in its shadow?

The Museum stands as both partof monumental Washington and incontrast to it, said Museum DirectorSara J. Bloomeld. Located between the

Jefferson and Washington memorialsand within sight of the Smithsonianmuseumsbetween monuments tohuman freedom and achievementthe Museum is a counterpoint, showingwhat can happen when freedom isdestroyed and when human achievementis in the service of evil rather than good.

A Museum visit is anchored in theAmerican perspective. At one entrance,visitors encounter a prophetic quotationfrom General Dwight D. Eisenhower

etched into the building. He antici-pated the denial and distortion of theHolocaust, a crime so vast in scope andscale that he knew some would doubtits truth. He said:

The things I saw beggar description.... The visual evidence and the verbaltestimony of starvation, cruelty andbestiality were...overpowering.... Imade this visit deliberately, in order tobe in position to give rst-hand evidenceof these things if ever, in the future,there develops a tendency to charge theseallegations merely to propaganda.

At another entrance, visitors seea display of ags from the US Armydivisions that liberated concentrationcamps. And a visitors rst experienceof the Permanent Exhibition is the voice

of an American colonel recalling hispatrol leaders shock at seeing a campand asking how something like thatcould happenthe overriding questionthat guides the Museums work.

explorINg hArd QuesTIoNs

The American experience of theHolocaust is a consistent themethroughout the Permanent Exhibitionas well as numerous special and travelingexhibitions (see sidebar on page 20).

shorTly ATer The MuseuM opeNed IN 1993,a US Senator remarked, The Washington Monument

has never looked so beautiful as it does now that it sits

next to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.


But another important aspect of theMuseums role as a national institutionis unseen by many visitorsthat isthe leadership development programscreated in tandem with the US military,law enforcement, and the judiciary(see article on page 8).

Although they serve a variety ofaudiences, these programs all explorethe question of why a democracy,albeit a struggling one, gave rise tothe Holocaust. What happens whenthe institutions that are intended tosafeguard democratic principles fail?What causes that failure? And what arethe responsibilities of the individualsjudges, attorneys, police ofcers, andmembers of our armed forceschargedwith upholding those principles?

Interest in these programs has

increased signicantly since theSeptember 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,noted Sarah Ogilvie, director of theNational Institute for HolocaustEducation, due in part to the ongoingnational debate about the properbalance between ensuring ourcollective security and protectingindividual freedom.

But it is not only of leaders andprofessionals that the Museum askstough questions. Displays throughout

pvia: A group of Museum

volunteers wait beneath a quotationfrom the Declaration of Independencefor a school group to arrive in March2012. US Holocaust Memorial MuseumTia:The roof of the Museumwith the Washington Monumentin the background. Timothy Hursley

lt: Military academyinstructors tour thePermanent Exhibitionwith volunteer BenjaminCohen on May 30, 2012. bw: High-ranking USArmy ofcers inspectthe recently liberatedOhrdruf concentrationcamp. General DwightD. Eisenhower is secondfrom right. US Holocaust

Memorial Museum

the Permanent Exhibition promptvisitors to ask themselves: Whatdid Americans at the time knowabout what was happening in Nazi-

dominated Europe? How did theUS government respond? How didAmerican citizens respond?

One artifact that invites thisreection is theNew York Timespolitical cartoon on the outcomeof the Evian conference, held in1938 to address the growing refugeecrisis in Europe. Of the 32 nationsrepresented at Evian, including theUnited States, which called for themeeting, only onethe Dominican


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Av: This political cartoon by SidneyGeorge Strube, titled Will the EvianConference guide him to freedom?,was published in the Sunday, July 3,1938, edition of theNew York Times.bw: Varian Fry (right) in Marseilles. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

WheN rANCe ell To The

Nazis in 1940, four millionrefugees (both French andforeign) were trapped inits unoccupied southernprovinceslocales wherethe Vichy governmentcaptured and imprisonedindividuals at the behest of

the Gestapo. Among thosecaught in Hitlers growing

realm were Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst,Marcel Duchamp, and Andre Bretonamong Europesintellectual and artistic luminaries.

If not for the heroic and clandestine efforts of oneAmerican, these individualsand many othersmayhave been attacked, imprisoned, or murdered as enemiesof the Nazi state. Yet Varian Frys story has long beenovershadowed by the accomplishments of those he saved.

RECOgNIzINg ANAMerICANresCuer

It was not until 1994, nearly three decades afterhis death in 1967, that he became the rst Americanto be recognized as Righteous Among the Nationsby Yad Vashem. Because of Frys relative anonymity,the Museum chose to tell his story in its rstspecial exhibition, launched in 1993:ASSGNMENT:RESCUE, The Story of Varian Fry and the EmergencyRescue Committee.

The Emergency Rescue Committee, a privaterelief organization, sent Fry to Marseilles. Therethe young editor used his facility for languageshestudied classics at Harvard and his appreciationof European culture to establish an undergroundnetwork that forged travel documents, exchanged

money on the black market, and developed escaperoutes. Frys network smuggled victims to Portugalor Spain, where they were hidden on ships boundfor America.

By the time he was forced out of France by Vichyauthorities in September 1941, Fry was responsiblefor saving nearly 4,000 Jews and others. Efforts likethe Museums special exhibition honoring Fry, whichlater traveled around the United States, have helpedprevent his name from being lost to history.

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Republicagreed to signicantlyincrease its immigration quotas toinclude more Jews. The cartoon depictsa man labeled non-Aryan sittingin the middle of a swastika-shapedcrossroads, each branch of which leadsto a stop sign. The refusal to help the

Jews of Europe happened at a timewhen there were warning signs of theHolocaust and action could have beentaken. The cartoons publication in amajor American newspaper provokes

contemplation about the role of theUS government and its citizens inpreventing genocide.

This museum raises tough questionswithout answering them, said Ogilvie.The point is to put them to the publicto consider. We dont tell people what

to think, but we do provoke themto consider what the history of theHolocaust means for them and theirrole in society.

On the occasion of its 20thanniversary, the Museum has putsome of those challenging questionsto the public through an awarenesscampaign and a national tour: Whydid the Holocaust happen? Who wasresponsible for the Holocaust? Canwe make never again more than a

promise? Does memory have thepower to change the world? Thevigorous discussion these questionshave promptedat tour stops andon social mediais a testament to theenduring relevance of the Holocaustin contemporary America.

events & exhibitionspLEASE JOIN US IN YOUR COMMUNI

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Join us in ChICAgo n Jn 9at the Chicago Cultural

Center for the nal stop ofthe Museums national tour.At this free public event,participate in interactivediscussions, view rarelyseen archival lms, conductfamily research, meet withMuseum curators, and paytribute to local Holocaustsurvivors and World WarII veterans. Visit mm./nvaain or call 866.998.7466to register and learn more.

IrsT persoN: CoNVersATIoNs WITh holoCAusT surVIVors

WASHINgTON, DC

Hear Holocaust survivors tell their life stories in their own words.

Each hour-long program features a live interview between journalistBill Benson and a survivor, followed by a question-and-answersession. The conversations take place in the Museum Wednesdaysand Thursdays at 1 p.m. through August 15 (with the exception ofthe week of July 4, when they will be held Tuesday and Wednesday).The First Person series is also available as a podcast. Visit mm./anmviv.

The Louis Franklin Smih Foundaion has rovided onoin suor or he Firs person ror am.

lt: Attendees pay tribute tolocal Holocaust survivors andWorld War II veterans at the BocaRaton tour event.David Y. Lee/US Holocaust Memorial Museum

TrAVelINg exhIbITIoNs

IghTINg The Ires o hATe:AMerICA ANd The NAzI booKburNINgsA thought-provoking exhibitionexploring the front lines in the war of

ideas between democracy and fascism

FAYETTEVILLE, NC

March 31May 22, 2013Cumberland County Public Library

RENO, NV

Auus 4Auus 27, 2013Holocaust Resource Center inpartnership with the NevadaHolocaust Education Task Force

LAS VEgAS, NV

Auus 31Seember 25, 2013

Northwest Branch Library inpartnership with the NevadaHolocaust Education Task Force

NAzI perseCuTIoN o hoMosexuAls19331945An exhibition tracing the sinisterpath from prejudice to persecutionof homosexuals in Nazi Germany

NEW ROCHELLE, NY

Aril 20June 12, 2013Temple Israel of New Rochelle inpartnership with The LOFT: LGBTCommunity Services Center

KINgSTON, NY

June 20Auus 14, 2013

Hudson Valley LGBTQ CommunityCenter

The Unied Saes Holocaus Memorial Museum exhibiions

roram is suored in ar by he Leser Robbins and

Sheila Johnson Robbins Travelin and Secial Exhibiions

Fund esablished in 1990.

For a comlee schedule o ravelin exhibiions, lease visi mm./mm/ii/avin.

lt: Holocaust survivor Fanny Aizenberg tells her story to Bill Benson during the2012 First Person series. US Holocaust Memorial Museum


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From sharing your story to donating artifacts,we have identied 20 ACTIoNs to engage with theMuseum in its 20th year. Visit nvaain.mm./acinto browse the actions and choose oneormanythat you can do.

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memory & action spring 2013

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