These postcards — sent to survivor Ruth Lebraun Knopp of Red Bank while she was in the Theresienstadt concentration camp — will be part of “The Exhibit: A Journey to Life” at Monmouth Museum.
Photos courtesy Christine Burke Associates
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February 3, 2009
Next month, a new, interactive exhibit at Monmouth Museum on the Brookdale Community College campus in Lincroft will bring to life a world that was lost during the Holocaust.
“The Exhibit: A Journey to Life” will be on display from March 15 to May 15 as part of the 30th anniversary commemoration of the BCC Holocaust, Genocide, & Human Rights Education Center.
Among the material on exhibit will be more than a dozen suitcases containing scrapbooks of treasured photographs of local survivors and their loved ones, along with documents and other mementos that will weave together the story of each survivor’s personal journey. Various artifacts, maps, timelines, videotapes, a children’s art and poetry display, and children’s letters to survivors will supplement the survivors’ histories.
In addition, the exhibit will feature montage panels that will display the photos and personal essays of more than 20 local survivors. A second exhibit component will consist of a global perspective on historical and contemporary genocides and suggestions for individual activism.
The project — sponsored by the BCC center, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and the B’nai Sholom/Beth El Foundation of Temple Beth El in Oakhurst — will travel to schools, libraries, and other venues throughout the state after it leaves the Monmouth Museum.
The prominent use of suitcases in the exhibit symbolizes the travels and travails of Holocaust survivors and victims, according to the BCC center’s executive director, Dale Daniels. The journey into the survivors’ lives will begin with a portrayal of their lives before the Holocaust and will share the brutality they endured as their existence was torn apart; their adjustment to life in America and their testimonies to survival also are incorporated in the exhibit, Daniels said.
This photo of the grandparents of survivor John Woolf of Neptune will be displayed in “The Exhibit: A Journey to Life.” They are Amalia and Ignetz Roth; he died of natural causes; she died in Auschwitz.
“A team of dedicated Holocaust educators and volunteers donated endless hours to work with Holocaust survivors to create each one-of-a-kind scrapbook, as well as gathering the supporting documentation,” Daniels told NJ Jewish News. “The center is fortunate to have received a treasury of artifacts from the survivors — we call them ‘master teachers’ because of the impact of their stories. They put a personal face on the events of history.”
‘Human rights education’
The exhibit will teach lessons of the Holocaust that are relevant to life in the 21st century, Daniels said.
“There are still the destructiveness of hatred and prejudice and the personal responsibility of each individual to address injustice, whether it is bullying in the classroom or genocide in Darfur,” she said. “We are confronted daily with the fact that our cries of ‘Never again’ have not been answered.”
The idea for the exhibit emerged three years ago, when Daniels, center board members, and volunteers decided to develop curriculum suitcases that focused on individual survivor stories. As the concept evolved, the group realized that the suitcases would be valuable learning tools that also could comprise a major center exhibit.
The project has already received kudos from noted author and survivor Elie Wiesel, who sent his congratulations for “outstanding work in the field of Holocaust studies and human rights education” to Albert Zager of Fair Haven, president of the center’s board of directors.
“I wrote to him in 2007 and sent him information about the center,” Zager said. “He was unable to be a guest speaker, but the result was the personal letter he sent to me. We are all extremely privileged to receive his response to the exhibit and we’re proud of a project that was put together through the hard work of a very dedicated group of staff members and volunteers.”
The massive undertaking will clearly define the scope of Holocaust travesties, he added.
“That message will be amplified by the exhibit segment on acts of genocide that occurred before the Holocaust, and, regretfully, are still going on today,” Zager said. “We hope the entire exhibit will foster support for the center’s work as we begin our next 30 years of service.”
Additional information about the exhibit is available at www.holocaustbcc.org and www.monmouthmuseum.org.
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