An American Rabbi in Buchenwald

Author and historian Dr. Rafael Medoff will speak about Rabbi Herschel Schacter, a chaplain whose unit liberated the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald. Schacter was thrust into the role of helping survivors rebuild their shattered lives and serving as their voice to the world.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and the author of more than 20 books about the Holocaust, Zionism, and American Jewish history including The Rabbi of Buchenwald. Dr. Medoff has taught at The Ohio State University and Purchase College of the State University of New York, and is a Fellow of the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University.

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Plan Your Visit

A visit to the Zekelman Holocaust Center will teach you about the Holocaust and inspire you to create a better future. Each week, we offer docent-led public tours on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday at 1 pm and a Holocaust Survivor Speaker on Sunday at noon. Explore exhibits that include a WWII-era boxcar used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other “undesirables” to concentrations camps, and the Viola and Garry Kappy Anne Frank Tree Exhibit and Garden, featuring a chestnut tree grown from a sapling taken from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Learn about the importance of standing up to prejudice, discrimination and hate from the examples of those who risked their lives to save others during the Holocaust.