Opening Reception for 'Americans and the Holocaust' Exhibit Opens Thursday

Mullins Library, the centerpiece of the University of Arkansas Libraries, is one of 50 U.S. libraries that have been selected to host Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans' responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. The touring library exhibition — based on the special exhibition of the same name at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. — will travel to U.S. libraries from 2020 to 2022.

An opening reception for the exhibit will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in the Mullins Library Hodges Reading Room. Remarks will be given by Laurence Hare, associate professor of history and director of the International & Global Studies Program, at 5:15. Light refreshments will be provided. In addition to the exhibit, information stations from community resources related to Arkansas' connections to WWII and the Holocaust will be present. This event is open to the public and offered at no cost to attendees. It is the first in a series of four events related to the exhibit.

Additional programming will include Prelude to War: A Film Screening & Discussion, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the Pryor Center on the downtown Fayetteville square. Frank Scheide, professor of communication, will lead a screening and discussion of the film Prelude to War (1942), the first in the Why We Fight film series, produced by the United States government during WWII.

A panel discussion with student and faculty speakers on how the Holocaust affected a variety of disciplines will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, in the Mullins Library Hodges Reading Room. Jennifer Hoyer, associate professor of German and director of Jewish Studies will serve as the moderator. Panelists include Greg Herman, associate professor of architecture; Amelia McGowan, assistant professor and Immigration Clinic director for the University of Arkansas School of Law; Kevin Simpson, chair of the Psychology Department and professor of psychology at John Brown University; Toby Kline, Ph.D. candidate in public policy; and Mia Bingaman, undergraduate psychology major. 

The final event for the exhibition will be Through My Grandmother's Eyes: The Veit Simon Family During the Holocaust, set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the Fayetteville Public Library. Courtney Doi will share the story of her grandmother, Judith Klein, the youngest of six children, who left Berlin, Germany on the Kindertransport in December 1938 just after Kristallnacht. Judith's father, grandmother, two aunts and two of her siblings died in concentration camps. Judith passed away in 2016, and Courtney inherited 30 years of her personal journals. Featuring old family photographs and firsthand accounts from her grandmother's writing, Courtney's presentation will explore both Judith's journey out of Germany as a teenage refugee and her extended family's experiences across Europe during the war. In addition, Courtney will discuss her own travels back to Germany to further understand her family history and how we, as individuals, can work to prevent genocide in the future.

In addition to the traveling exhibition on loan, the University Libraries received a cash grant to support these public programs. The grant also covered one library staff member's attendance at an orientation workshop at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

For more information about Americans and the Holocaust and related programming at the University of Arkansas Libraries, visit libraries.uark.edu. To learn more about the exhibition, visit ushmm.org/americans-ala.

Americans and the Holocaust: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries is an educational initiative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association.

Americans and the Holocaust was made possible by the generous support of lead sponsor Jeannie & Jonathan Lavine. Additional major funding was provided by the Bildners — Joan & Allen z"l, Elisa Spungen & Rob, Nancy & Jim; and Jane and Daniel Och. The museum's exhibitions are also supported by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990.