WHAT DO WE REMEMBER, HOW DO WE REMEMBER, WHY DO WE REMEMBER?
HOW DOES CONNECTICUT REMEMBER THE HOLOCAUST?
"If anything can, it is memory that will save humanity."
-Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Lecture, 1986
Connecticut Remembers the Holocaust introduces visitors to the history of the Holocaust through the experiences of Holocaust survivors who settled in our state, rebuilding their lives in America after the trauma of World War II. Through their lives and their memories, we can learn the importance of preserving the past to build a better future and the role that all of us can play in building a society dedicated to mutual understanding and respect that celebrates diversity and cares for others.
WHAT DO WE REMEMBER?
The planned, state-sponsored persecution and murder of over six million European Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators is known as the Holocaust in English, the Shoah in Hebrew, and the Hurbn in Yiddish. Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe began in 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany. Describing Jews as “racially inferior” beings, Hitler and the Nazi party set out to cleanse Europe of Jews by identifying, persecuting, isolating, and eventually murdering millions of Jewish men, women and children first from Germany, and then from all of the occupied and German allied territories in Europe. Jews were crowded into ghettos, sent to forced labor camps, executed in mass shootings, and deported to extermination camps, where they were murdered in gassing facilities or died from appalling living conditions. This plan to annihilate the Jewish population of Europe was called the Final Solution by the Nazis.
By the end of World War II, two out of every three Jews living throughout Europe had been murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Still, some Jews managed to survive, some with the help of principled friends and neighbors, some by escaping into the forests of Europe where they joined the partisans, others by fleeing to the far reaches of the Soviet Union, and some by simply outlasting the nightmare. Leaving the devastation of their homelands and a destroyed civilization, hundreds of survivors made their way to Connecticut in the decades after World War II.
WHY DO WE REMEMBER?
Connecticut Remembers the Holocaust introduces visitors to first-hand stories of survival, recorded as a testimony to what happens when prejudice and discrimination are allowed to multiply without the intervention of responsible individuals and governments. Through the testimonies of survivors, as well as the stories of their children and grandchildren, visitors to the exhibition will begin to understand the lasting impact of the Holocaust into the 21st century. Visitors will be introduced to survivors and their families, bearing witness to those who perished in World War II and to the remarkable resilience of survivors who came to Connecticut and became part of our community.
Through the stories of the survivors featured in this virtual exhibit, we can begin to learn about the great Jewish civilization that once existed in Europe and about the Jewish encounter with persecution in Nazi-occupied Europe: from the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, to the experiences of Kristallnacht and the outbreak of World War II, the German occupation of Western Europe, deportation to concentration camps, forced labor camps, and extermination camps, Jewish life in the ghettos of Eastern Europe, Jewish participation in the resistance, flight to the forests, Jewish participation in the partisans, survival in hiding, and more. We will also learn how Jews rebuilt their lives in the aftermath of such destruction, committed to ensuring that the memory of their loved ones would not be forgotten, and that the world would learn from the persecution of Jews and other victims to prevent such atrocities in the future.
HOW DO WE REMEMBER?
As you listen to the stories of survival presented here, you too become a witness to the experiences that are shared here. The Survivors have chosen to share their memories with us, in the hope that the memory of evil, the memory of righteousness, and the memory of the victims, can help us engage in the act of repairing the world. As you proceed through this exhibition, think about the role you can play in sharing these memories with others – What will you remember? Why will you remember? How will you remember?
May the courage, the resilience, and the dedication of these survivors serve as an inspiration to us all.
The original Hartford Remembers the Holocaust exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Civilization, University of Hartford was made possible by grants from The Connecticut Humanities Council, the Maximillian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, with the support of the Mandell JCC, the Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, and the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford.
Museum Director and Exhibit Creator: Prof. Avinoam Patt
Exhibit Designer: Dreanna Hadash
Exhibition Videos: Steve Shaw and Nild Sansone
Special thanks to Susan Fishman, Whitey Jenkins, and Nild Sansone for exhibition planning assistance
HERO (Holocaust Education Resource and Outreach) Center Director: Sarah Snyder
CT Remembers the Holocaust is a joint project of Voices of Hope, the HERO Center, and the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, with additional support provided by the University of Connecticut Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life.
CT Remembers the Holocaust curriculum design: Elizabeth Devine and Tracey Wilson
CT Remembers the Holocaust website design: Denise deMello
Additional thanks to the following organizations and individuals who have helped to make this project possible:
The Louis Joseloff Foundation Fund, JT Connect, Jewish Community Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, Debbie and Steven Kleinman, and the Peter and Lisa Fishman Family Fund