Library exhibit examines Holocaust

“Americans and the Holocaust” will be at the Waupaca Area Public Library from Saturday, Nov. 9, until Tuesday, Dec. 17.

The traveling exhibit is a project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association.

“Americans and the Holocaust” addresses themes in American history, including Americans’ responses to refugees, war and genocide in the 1930s and ‘40s.

According to organizers, this exhibit challenges commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded.

Drawing on a collection of primary sources from the World War II era, the exhibition focuses on the stories of individuals and groups of Americans who took action in response to Nazism.

It will also challenge visitors to consider the responsibilities and obstacles faced by individuals – from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ordinary Americans – who made difficult choices, sought to effect change, and, in a few cases, took significant risks to help victims of Nazism even as rescue never became a government priority.

The exhibit hopes to challenge people to not only ask “What would I have done?” but also, “What will I do?”

Related programs

• Saturday, Nov. 9 – At 11 a.m. Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery Director Andrew Whitman, will lead a tour of the cemetery and talk about World War II veterans.

Participants will meet at the Veterans Home main office building, N2665 County Trunk QQ, King. This program is free and open to all ages, with no advanced registration required.

• Wednesday, Nov. 13 – In conjunction with the exhibit, the featured speaker at the library’s noon Lunch and Learn program will be Sam Goldberg. His topic will be Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass.

In November 1938, the Nazis orchestrated a state-sponsored campaign of violence and destruction against Jewish communities.

The world watched on as the SA, Hitler Youth and ordinary citizens destroyed hundreds of synagogues, shattered the windows of and looted an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, and rounded up 30,000 Jewish men to be taken to concentration camps.

Newspapers everywhere reported on the violence, and this event is widely believed to be the warning sign missed around the world.

Goldberg is the director of education at the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center.

Lunch and Learn is a free program at the library, but registration is required at the library’s website.

• Thursday, Nov. 14 – The library will screen Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” at 1:30 p.m.

Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in this 1940 film that employed political satire and black comedy to condemn fascism, anti-Semitism and Nazis.

Chaplin played dual roles as a persecuted Jewish barber and a ruthless dictator.

• Saturday, Nov. 16 – The library book club will discuss “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak at 10 a.m.

Set in Nazi Germany, this historical novel is about a young girl named Lilesel who learns to love reading after stealing a copy of “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” that she finds at a train station on the way to live with her foster parents.

• Monday, Nov. 18 – Winchester Academy will present Tim Crain, who will speak about what the U.S. government did and did not do to stop Nazi genocide at 6:30 p.m. in the library’s lower level.

Crain is a former director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University.

• Wednesday, Nov. 20 – Bob Skloot will focus on the life and career of Raphael Lemkin (1900-59), a Polish-born lawyer who, after fleeing war-time Europe, became responsible for the creation and adoption of the United Nations’ “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

His presentation starts at 11 a.m. He will describe U.S. politics at the time and explain the text of the document and how it relates to contemporary events.

Skoot is University of Wisconsin-Madison professorin theater and drama, and Jewish studies.