By Joshua Wilson, Museum Educator at The HC – During Black History Month, we want to honor the memories of Black people who lived through the violent and hateful ideology of Nazism, and make sure their stories are told. Discrimination and the Third Reich Before World War II, Germany’s Black population, composed mainly of colonial… Continue Reading Afro-Germans and the Holocaust
By: Feiga Weiss, Head Librarian and Archivist – On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, Hans Weinmann was laid to rest in the Clover Hill Park Cemetery, in Birmingham. It was a graveside service attended by his wife and a group of his closest friends. As a US Army veteran, he was accorded full military honors by… Continue Reading A Memorial Tribute to Hans Weinmann, Devoted Friend to the Holocaust Memorial Center
By: Alan Gershel, Volunteer Docent – One of my colleagues in our docent training class, who was aware that I was a former prosecutor with an interest in the Nuremberg trials, gave me a copy of East West Street. In that book, Philippe Sands, a British human rights lawyer, wrote about his maternal grandfather who… Continue Reading BOOK REVIEW: “The Ratline: Love, Lies, and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive”
By: HMC Editorial Staff – Dr. David Weinberg, many years a member of the Holocaust Memorial Center, was first introduced to Berry Nahmia at a synagogue in Athens, Greece, at a holiday reception. She showed him the numbers on her arm. He slowly caressed them with his hand and then embraced her. They immediately became… Continue Reading A Cry for Tomorrow
By Dr. Stuart Falk, Volunteer Docent The survival of 800 adults and children in WWII Germany at Berlin’s Jewish Hospital is the subject Daniel Silver’s book Refuge in Hell: How Berlin’s Jewish Hospital Outlasted the Nazis. The survival of the Jewish patients occurred while Adolf Eichmann and his staff kept it under scrutiny. There are… Continue Reading Berlin’s Jewish Hospital
By: Anne Donato, Ph.D, Education Specialist – There is an old saying…one man’s findings are another man’s treasure. And as I looked from my desk out into our library archives, I saw a beautiful piece of gold. Hanging on our wall. Looking at me with dark eyes and a simple smile. It was a pencil… Continue Reading The Anne Frank Lithograph – Our Hidden Treasure
By: HMC Archival Staff – This brass Menorah (c. 1900), used during the Jewish festival of Chanukah, was brought to the US by Lili and Karl Kolb in 1938, shortly before the Anschluss – the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. The Kolbs narrowly escaped the Anschluss with the help of Ida and Sam Arkin… Continue Reading A Menorah That Escaped The Anschluss
By: HMC Editorial Staff – The Holocaust Memorial Center is the repository of numerous Holocaust artifacts. They often have fascinating backgrounds from which we can learn important historical and ethical lessons. Below are two spotlights on artifacts that illuminate stories that are not-so-well-known, but represent the dramatic tales of lives saved and loved-ones lost during… Continue Reading Artifacts: Oh, the stories they can tell!
By: Michael Leibson, Volunteer Docent – The entire story of Rudolf Kasztner and his role in rescuing over 1,600 Hungarian Jews is quite complex. It also offers an extraordinary example of face-to-face negotiations between a representative of the Jewish community and the main architect of the Holocaust, a man who was in charge of implementing… Continue Reading Face-To-Face: Rudolf Kasztner’s controversial negotiations with Adolf Eichmann
By: HMC Editorial Staff – The HMC Library Archives include a multitude of interesting and unique collections. One of those is the papers of Ruth Tryon, secretary to Chief Justice Robert H. Jackson and a court reporter at the International Military Tribunal trials in Nuremberg. The Nuremberg Trials saw leading Nazis indicted on charges of… Continue Reading A Michigan Eyewitness to the Nuremberg Trials