Grunwald Collection Featured at USHMM 20th Anniversary

with a daylong celebration in the Museum complex. The celebration featured notables associated with the Museum during its first 20 years including President Bill Clinton and survivor Elie Wiesel, who was instrumental in the creation of the Museum. The night before, a large anniversary dinner was also held.

During the Monday segment of the celebration, USHMM Photo Archivist Judy Cohen made a special presentation on the Grunwald Family Collection to attendees at the celebration. The collection began with the donation of Vilma's letter in July 2012. At the time, Frank also gave Judy

several copies of family photos which were eventually scanned and entered into the Museum's digitalcollection. By November, an additional document unexpectedly surfaced in Santa Barbara, CA in the form of a post-war testimony given by Kurt Grunwald in the Ohrdruf concentration camp shortly after liberation. A draft of the typed testimony was saved by liberator/typist Albert Craig Levinson, and donated to the Museum in February 2013 by his daughter.

Reading resident and former USHMM intern, Nancy Bubbenmoyer, was present at Judy's presentation. Nancy reports, "I thought Judy Cohen's presentation on the acquisition of the love letter Frank Grunwald's mother wrote to his father prior to her death was very informative. Mrs. Cohen also incorporated a brief explanation to the audience of how the Holocaust Museum acquires items and artifacts, how the items are catalogued, and how they are preserved." We are grateful that Nancy was on hand to also provide some photographs of this event which are included in this update.

To read more about the history of this pivotal donation to the Museum's collection, we invite you to check out our first "Storify" by clicking here.