'Americans and the Holocaust' Speaker Event Tonight at Public Library

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Courtney Doi

Mullins Library, the centerpiece of the University of Arkansas Libraries, is one of 50 U.S. libraries that have been selected to host Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans' responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. The touring library exhibition — based on the special exhibition of the same name at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. — will travel to U.S. libraries from 2020 to 2022.

The final event for the exhibition will be Through My Grandmother's Eyes: The Veit Simon Family During the Holocaust, set for 6 p.m. tonight, Dec. 7, at the Fayetteville Public Library's Willard and Pat Walker Community Room. Courtney Doi will share the story of her grandmother, Judith Klein, the youngest of six children, who left Berlin, Germany, on the Kindertransport in December 1938 just after Kristallnacht. Klein's father, grandmother, two aunts and two of her siblings died in concentration camps. Klein passed away in 2016, and Doi inherited 30 years of her personal journals. Featuring old family photographs and first-hand accounts from her grandmother's writing, Doi's presentation will explore both Klein's journey out of Germany as a teenage refugee and her extended family's experiences across Europe during the war. In addition, Doi will discuss her own travels back to Germany to further understand her family history and how we, as individuals, can work to prevent genocide in the future.

In addition to the traveling exhibition on loan, the University Libraries received a cash grant to support public programs. The grant also covered one library staff member's attendance at an orientation workshop at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

For more information about Americans and the Holocaust and related programming at the U of A Libraries, visit libraries.uark.edu. To learn more about the exhibition, visit ushmm.org/americans-ala.

Americans and the Holocaust: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries is an educational initiative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association.

Americans and the Holocaust was made possible by the generous support of lead sponsor Jeannie & Jonathan Lavine. Additional major funding was provided by the Bildners — Joan & Allen z"l, Elisa Spungen & Rob, Nancy & Jim — and Jane and Daniel Och. The museum's exhibitions are also supported by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990.