De Malyene–Winter 2019 by Rachel Harper

Message from the Director | New Course for TEI 2019 | Upcoming Exhibits A Glimpse into Deceit: Nazi Propaganda | The White Genocide Myth in the United States More to be Uncovered: New Generation of Holocaust Studies Academics Highlights from 2018 | Remembering Survivors Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve Passed

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Your next event The Virginia Holocaust Museum contains two rental spaces, a 5600 square foot auditorium/synagogue and a 5300 square foot classroom. For a seated, lecturestyle event, the auditorium has a maximum capacity of 300 (225 for seated dinners/ banquets), while the classroom has a maximum capacity of 100. Food and beverage service is allowed in both facilities, provided that the proper insurance and licenses have been secured. The museum does not provide catering. Both the auditorium/synagogue and the classroom are fully AV equipped. Use of the equipment can be included in any rental for a nominal charge.

For more information about rentals you can visit www.vaholocaust.org/rentals or call us at 804 257 5400 ext. 246

Contents

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PG 13 PG 12

Message from the Director

Who Were Our Visitors in 2019?

Upcoming Exhibitions

A Glimpse into Deciet

Shifting the Focus: White Genocide Myth in the United States

More to Be Uncovered

New Additions to TEI 2019

Recommended Reading: The Children of Willesden Lane

Highlights from 2018

We Remember

What is a Malyene? In Yiddish, “de malyene” means a raspberry bush, but in the slang of Eastern European Jews, it also meant “a hiding place.” “De malyene” is where you would protect your most precious valuables– gold, jewels, a small child or yourself. Make a resolution not to hide, but come experience the Virginia Holocaust Museum with the many programs and events it has to share.

Cover Photo: Detail from the End Hate Doors by V.L. Cox. This piece is on view at the Virginia Holocaust Museum as a part of the exhibit Break Glass: The Art of V.L. Cox–A Conversation to End hate.

Personal and Powerful

Message from the Director As we move toward the end of the year and we mark almost one year of my service to the Virginia Holocaust Museum, much has been accomplished and much is yet to be done. We will always follow our mission statement’s call to “preserve and document the Holocaust in exhibits and archival collections. Through the permanent exhibit, educational programming, and outreach the museum employs the history of the Holocaust and other genocides to educate and inspire future generations of Virginians to fight prejudice and indifference”. On Saturday morning, October 27, I got a call from one of our Board members with the terrible news that there had been a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Eleven members of the synagogue had been killed and 4 officers had been injured. The day was filled with news reports, calls and emails. We were all in shock. How could this happen to such a peaceful community in Pittsburgh? It was called the worst Anti-Semitic episode in American history. Within a day or two we got a call from NBC 12 that they wanted to film the reaction of one of our survivors to the terrible shooting in Pittsburgh. Jasmine Turner came to VHM to film the piece with Roger Loria. It was beautifully done and we thank her for her sensitivity and professionalism. We thank Roger for his ability to convey an amazing message. But it is clear that we must redouble our efforts to reach out and convey the message that our community must come together. We must admit that there is a tear in the fabric of our society and we have to sew up the hole by bringing communities together.

On September 28 the “Break Glass: Conversations to End Hate” Exhibit opened and we had a Teacher Professional Development Workshop concurrent with the exhibit. The exhibit was the backdrop for the NBC 12 news piece done that week. This is an example of an exhibit that can help us have difficult and important discussions to help us come together. It will be on display until the February 10th. On November 2: Blood is the Same (Sudanese Lost Boys Art) opened in the Weinstein Gallery. This is another very important exhibit for us. It examines another genocide in our world that we cannot ignore. Please take the opportunity to come see this exhibit as it reflects another genocide perpetrated on another group of human beings, this time in Africa. We must continue to respond to all forms of racism, intolerance and anti-semitism in our society. Please make every effort to come to the museum and what progress we’ve made. Thanks to a Barbara and Fred Kort Foundation grant, we are now in the middle of construction to expand our archives and new TEI classroom. As you can see the Virginia Holocaust Museum is moving in a lot of new directions. Please make sure to stand with us. Please reach out to me and let me know how we can build a stronger community and VHM together.

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Who were our Visitors in 2018? 40,000 people visited the museum Walk-Ins Vs. Groups

Non-Student Groups Served

Walk Ins 73%

Club Organizations

Rentals 2.9% Special Events 2.9%

Student Groups

27.1%

Corporations 2.7%

18% Gov/Military Non-Student Groups

Scheduled Groups

Where Were Our Visitors From? Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas

Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina

Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Washington D.C. Wisconsin Wyoming

Argentina Austria Canada Chile China Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador

England France Guatemala Iceland Israel Italy Lebanon Mexico

New Zealand Philippines Saint Kitts and Nevis Scotland Spain

13.8%

Special Event Attendance Chaperones 54% 43.4%

Churches & Synagogues 7.2%

20 Outreach Programs reached 2,128 people

We thought we knew so much about the Holocaust, but we left with much more knowledge. Brandi & Joshua Satterfield, Feb 2018

Increased since 2017 Walk-ins | Special Events High School Group Tours College Student Visitors Club Org. Group Tours

*Data gathered from December 1, 2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;November 30, 2018 6

Student Populations Served in Virginia

“...The Museum employs the history of the Holocaust and other genocides to educate and inspire future generations of Virginians to fight prejudice and indifference.”

Warren Co. Fairfax Co. Prince William Co. Harrisonburg

Virginia Holocaust Museum Mission Statement

Fredericksburg Spotsylvania Co. Colonial Beach Abemarle Co. Louisa Hanover Co. Essex Co. Richmond Henrico Co. Chesterfield Buckingham Co. King William Powhatan Lynchburg Roanoke West Point New Kent Bedford Co. Mathews Prince Edward Co. York Co. Nottoway Co. Newport News James City Franklin Co. Campbell Co. Hampton Isle of Wight Pittsylvania Co. Meckelnburg Co. Petersburg Virginia Beach Halifax Dinwiddie Suffolk Norfolk Prince George Chesapeake Augusta County

Montgomery Co.

6,783

Students visted with Tour Groups

Other Regions Served in 2018

Washington DC

North Carolina

South Carolina

Number of Students by VA Counties

0–50

51–100

101–200

201–600

Grade Level

70.4% Middle School Students

20.9% High School Students

6.1% College / University Students 1.5% Home Schoolers 1% Elementary Students

School Type 34.7% Public Middle Schools 34.7% Public High Schools

22.4% Private Combined Schools

3.1% Colleges/Universities 3.1% Governors Schools 3.1% Home School Groups 4.1% Other 2% Private High Schools 2% Private Middle Schools 1% Pub. Combined Schools 1% Pub. Elem. Schools

“Hearing your story broadened my view on power and the power of treating others the way you want to be treated. I am young, and looking at the future can be scary. Being told I can do whatever I put my mind to as long as I fight for what I believe in was extremely empowering.” –Rebekah, Goochland High School After Dr. Loria visted her school.

601–1K+

2019 Exhibitions at the VHM Break Glass: The Art of V.L. Cox–A Conversation to End Hate On view until February 10, 2019 Through her art, Cox aspires to spark conversation about civil rights and equality, while also exploring the persistence of hate and injustice in America today. Her work is often born in cathartic response to contemporary events and shaped from her own personal experiences growing up in Arkansas. Cox creates her work from found objects, appropriating them to make pointed criticisms about some of today’s most troubling topics – often delivering a message that is in direct opposition to the objects’ original message or intended use. This exhibition was organized by the Longwood Center for Visual Arts at Longwood University.

Blood is the Same On view until March 31, 2019 Awer Bul arrived in Virginia as a refugee of the civil war in Sudan. In 2007, he won a grant while studying at Virginia Commonwealth University to return to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya to conduct art workshops for children who lived there. This was the same camp where Bul lived after escaping the Sudanese Civil War. The six artists featured survived the Sudanese Civil War by making the perilous trek to Kenya and also taught along side Bul in his art workshops.

Tragedy of War Coming April 5, 2019–June 9, 2019 During WWII 120,000 ethnic Japanese on the west coast, two-thirds of them American citizens, were forced into a series of camps to live under armed guard. Japanese-American confinement was authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported by Congress and the Supreme Court. Authorities feared that Japanese residents were disloyal and might aid in a Japanese invasion of the U.S. ”The Tragedy of War” revisits the injustice of Japanese-American confinement by telling their stories and asking a question that resonates today: At what point should the rights of citizens be limited or denied to ensure our nation is secure? The exhibit is on loan from the Museum of History and Holocaust Education at Kennesaw State University. (Photo courtesy National Archives and Records Administration)

State of Deception Coming May 1, 2019–July 14, 2019 State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda is a traveling exhibition produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It examines how the Nazis used propaganda to win broad voter support in Germany’s young democracy after World War I, implement radical programs under the party’s dictatorship in the 1930s, and justify war and mass murder. This most extreme case study emphasizes why the issue of propaganda matters and challenges citizens to actively question, analyze, and seek the truth. (Photo courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Holocaust by Bullets Coming July 26, 2019–December 30, 2019 The “Holocaust By Bullets” exhibit that showcases historical evidence of Jews being massacred in open pits. Yahad-In Unum was created in 2004 by Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, to reveal the historical evidence of the “Holocaust By Bullets” exhibit. The exhibit features testimonies of witnesses who saw the mass shootings of an estimated 2.2 million Jews killed in Eastern Europe. The exhibit includes photographs and videotaped eyewitness testimonies. (Photo courtesy of the Polish National Archive)

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A Glimpse into Deceit by Angela Rueda, former Assistant Curator

Propaganda–often biased or misleading information meant to promote a particular viewpoint and persuade an audience to accept this view— was an integral part of the Nazi strategy. The party used propaganda to sway public opinion and garner support by exploiting fears and stereotypes; and in turn, shaped German ideology. Understanding the power of propaganda, Adolf Hitler established the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda shortly after he seized control in 1933, appointing Joseph Goebbels as its head. The establishment of this ministry made propaganda a fundamental part of the government and allowed Nazis propaganda to permeate every form of German media and every aspect of German society. One form of printed propaganda used by the Nazis was Wochenspruch der NSDAP or “Weekly Phrase of the NSDAP.” Starting in 1937, local and national Nazi Party propaganda offices began issuing weekly quotation posters for display in public areas. These posters featured quotes from prominent Nazi figures as well as historical, literary, and philosophical German figures. This poster comes from a collection of 47 housed at the museum. The posters date from October 1938 to November 1943 and feature quotes from Heinrich Himmler to Friedrich Nietzsche to Otto von Bismarck. Like all Nazi propaganda, this collection of posters uses both positive and negative images. Positive images extolled the virtues of government leadership, their vision, and the war. Negative images sought to create hatred for those considered enemies of the Third Reich, including Jews. This poster, meant to be on display from January 14 to 20, 1940, features a quote from a speech given by Adolf Hitler on September 16, 1935, the 10

day after the Nuremberg race laws were passed. The selected quote translates to, “We want to raise a tough lineage that is strong, dependable, loyal, obedient and proper.” The quote conveys Hitler’s hope for the future of Germany and hints at his desire for a “racially pure” nation. It is meant to inspire Germans, to call them to arms, and gain support for the war and Hitler’s cause. This poster, along with additional propaganda posters from the collection, will be on display at the VHM starting in the summer of 2019. This exhibit will be displayed alongside State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda, a traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that explores the use and power of Nazi propaganda during the Holocaust.

Shifting the Focus: The Myth of White Genocide in the United States by Timothy Hensley, Director of Collections

The “white genocide” myth that we discussed in the last issue is not unique to South African white nationalist movements. It is a regular subject in rhetoric and ideology with white extremists in the United States as well. came a regular talking point among white supremacist towards the late twentieth century; and was present as far back as the Civil Rights movement. Early advocates of the idea, like Wilmot Robertson, constructed their message to mirror the language used to support minority groups in the 1960s. Demographics became the key element to perpetuate this myth over the last forty years. In the 1980s, neo-Nazis and Klansmen adopted the use of population statistics in the United States as a focal point of instilling fear in young white people. The shifting numbers within ethnic groups coupled with an often-used Illuminati-like back story of Jewish manipulation of immigration patterns, stoked an ideology of a soon-to-be “oppressed white people.” During the Obama presidency, white supremacists experienced a renewed resurgence, and a correlating rise of the “white genocide” myth was observed on social media platforms. During this resurgence the conspiracy theory behind the myth began to conform to current trends. Key figures

within the movement fell back on the demographic claims in order to recruit and inspire their base. The current influx of white supremacist with the alt-Right movement is shifting the narrative towards direct attacks on diversity initiatives. Anti-Semitism continues to play a role in these narratives but it is often accentuated with the broader theme of “liberal activists.” For example, when the media covered the October 12 assault by members of the white nationalist Proud Boys in New York, neo-Nazi social media immediately began injecting a storm of messages attempting to shift the focus to various non-existent “alt-left activist” groups. As is the case in South Africa, there are no actions in the United States to provide any evidence of a “white genocide.” The rhetoric used by white supremacist groups are nothing more than a recruitment tool designed to scoop up new membership.

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by Rachel Harper, Graphic Designer

Meet the Academics Hana Green is currently a doctoral student at Clark University in Worcester, MA. Green’s undergraduate years were spent studying both Modern European and Holocaust History as well as Anthropology and Education. Green continued her career as a Middle School Language Arts and Social Studies instructor before completing her master’s degree from the University of Haifa in Holocaust Studies in 2017.

Dany Melkonowicki graduated with a BA in Media and Communication Studies in his home country of Israel. Melkonowicki honed his skills in marketing and advertising in Israeli marketing firms before returning to school to pursue a master’s degree in Holocaust Studies. Dany is currently studying at Haifa University and will be joining the VHM early in 2019 for a semester.

While Holocaust studies is a relatively new field in academia, it has expanded substantially since the mid-20th century. We reached out to a couple of young academics to talk about their research and how Holocaust Studies as a field is developing. Think about the times you were taught about the Holocaust in school. Most likely a history class in high school or university. Alternatively, maybe read Night for a literature class. How about examining connections between the Stanford Prison Experiment and Nazi actions in a psychology class? To some, the excerpts they learn in school is all they will ever know. For other individuals, further engaging the complex layers of the Holocaust will uncover lessons previously hidden.

or the aspiring scholars, it was their history classes in school that prompted them to go into Holocaust studies, both citing that it a favored subject. “I was fortunate enough to attend an undergraduate institution that offered many courses related to Holocaust History, Modern European History and Jewish History which provided me with a platform to explore these areas in depth,” says Green. “After completing my studies and finishing my service with Teach for America, I knew that I wanted to contribute my own research to the field and work to teach others this critical history.” For Melkonowicki, a family connection furthered his interest. His late grandmother, Estera Sznapik, was a Holocaust Survivor. Born in Lublin to a Galician family Estera lived most of her life in Lwow, Poland before moving to Tarnopol. When the Nazis invaded USSR in the summer of 1941, her first husband fled and left her alone with a two-week-old infant. Estera and her infant son, Friedrich, survived the war and were the only survivors from a family of six immediate family members. After the war, she met her second husband, left Poland in 1960 to resettle in Israel. “As I engaged deeper with my familial story, I wanted to elaborate my knowledge and to examine the field by myself.” Holocaust Studies as a scholarly subject emerged during the 1950s and has seen three generations of research. The first generation of Holocaust scholars were primarily Jewish intellectuals who were either exiled from Nazi Germany or were Survivors themselves. The next generation of Holocaust Studies saw the increase in research into Nazi German documents to provide comprehensive evidence of the extent atrocities that was the Holocaust and the push to archive oral testimonies and depositions of Survivors. Their work was not limited to documenting the historical timeline of the Holocaust but expanded into many fields of study such as psychology, sociology, theology, political philosophy, criminal and human rights law, and even literature and film. “Scholars who study the Holocaust, as opposed to other instances of genocide and mass atrocity, have been privileged to have access to many archives, research libraries and museums that support this continued research, but there remains much more yet to be discovered and discussed,” says Green. “I find that there is an assumption that the entirety of the academic work surrounding the Holocaust has been done, which is simply untrue.”

women and gendered issues during the Holocaust. “[I] am planning to continue research on the experiences and identities of Jewish women who survived the Holocaust in hiding or by ‘passing’ with a false identity.” Green notes that her colleagues’ and peers’ research in documenting new perspectives and information on both victims and perpetrators are advancing conceptual and theoretical frameworks relating to human nature, identity, and experience in the field of history and the social sciences at large. Despite all the compelling advancements in Holocaust research, the field has faced a number of challenges inside and outside of academia. “I think there is a supposition that the continued (and often mandated) education of the topic is outmoded or irrelevant,” says Green. “I disagree wholly, and see great value in the continued teaching of the Holocaust and, rather, view teaching this topic to be quite critical in contemporaneous times.” With anti-semitism and Holocaust denial on the rise globally, the field of Holocaust Studies is becoming increasingly critical as we attempt to understand and engage the current sociopolitical climate. This especially true when we look at eastern European countries like Poland and Ukraine. “The dispute around the Polish Law we witnessed in the last year is not new. In Ukraine, nationalist historians have omitted the collaboration of Ukrainians in the Final Solution or the anti-Jewish pogroms initiated by nationalist Ukrainians in the aftermath of WW2,” Melkonowicki explained. “Furthermore, as a result of those [omissions], the younger generations in Ukraine are ignorant when it comes to acknowledging the extent of the collaboration of their national heroes with the extermination of the Jews.” However, lack of awareness is not unique to Europe.

“There is an assumption that the entirety of the academic work surrounding the Holocaust has been done, which is simply untrue.”

Green and Melkonowicki are continuing the research into the Holocaust in the third generation. A primary research focus in this latest wave investigates events that occurred in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Melkonowicki uses his background in media and advertising to explore and research region of Galicia, the east European which is on the border between Poland and Ukraine. “I aim to write my master thesis about anti-semitic propaganda in the Ukrainian and Polish languages during the years of the Nazi occupation with a semantic comparison between them,” Dany explained. “In addition, I research the representations of Nazis in visual popular culture.” There are also a variety of social perspectives that previous generations of Holocaust researchers have dismissed or declined to examine further. Green is focusing her research on

Earlier this year in a survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, it found millennials from the United States had “significant gaps in knowledge” of the Holocaust. Current academic statistics show that approximately six million Jews perished in the Holocaust; however, the study found that four-in-ten millennials believe that the number is significantly lower (two million or fewer). Most concerning is that over one-fifth of U.S. millennials haven’t heard or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust. Additionally, while most adults from the U.S. know that the Holocaust occurred in Germany, the knowledge that the Holocaust happened in countries beyond Poland shrinks to the single-digits. The research that’s being done by the current academics is essential to how we discuss the Holocaust by acknowledging and including the perspectives and geographical regions that we weren’t necessarily taught in classes or acknowledged in popular media. Speaking about the future of Holocaust studies Melkonowicki said, “I hope that future academics and scholars would never feel daunted in [seeking] the truth.” “I hope that scholars in the field continue to advocate both inside and outside their respective institutions for tolerance, equity, and acceptance,” said Green. “Too, I think it is important for future academics and scholars to take an active role in working towards genocide recognition and taking a public stance to combat injustice throughout the world today.”

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Check Out What’s new for 2019’s Alexander Lebenstein Teacher Education Institute Course One: From Context to Classroom Online Session: June 17–June 21, 2019 Classroom Session: June 24–June 28, 2019 Earn up to 90 Recertification Points | Tuition: $50

NEW! Course Two: Genocide in the 20th Century Monday, July 15–Friday, July 19, 2019 Earn up to 45 Recertification Points | Tuition: $30

Get a Head Start Today! Deadline to apply is May 24, 2019 LONGWOOD U

This course is offered by the Virginia Holocaust Museum and Longwood University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. The Alexander Lebenstein Teacher Education Institute is recommended for middle and high school educators that would like to or currently teach the Holocaust in their classrooms. Longwood University’s Professional Studies Office utilizes the descriptions for Renewal Options in the Virginia Licensure Renewal Manual to suggest appropriate professional development points but advises all participants earning those points to work with their educational employing agency to verify and classify each course offered.

Would you like to sponsor a TEI Teacher? There is no doubt that the Alexander Lebenstein Teacher Education Institute is the flagship program at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. TEI has evolved from a weekend workshop to multi-component courses which assist educators in their understanding of the Holocaust and other genocides. We are not only reaching teachers but the thousands of students they will teach during their careers. Through generous donations from our supporters, teachers are able to participate in TEI with little or no cost to themselves. To learn more about how you can support a teacher, please contact Samuel Asher at sasher@vaholocaust.org or Megan Ferenczy at mferenczy@vaholocaust.org.

Recommended Reading by Kara Yurina, Gift Shop Manager The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen is a complex and loving tribute to Golabek’s mother Lisa, a testament to the power of music, and a moving story of the refugee experience. When fourteen-year-old Lisa Jura’s piano instructor suddenly ended their lessons, she was devastated. Lisa could not understand why the people of her native Austria were allowing themselves to be dictated to by the Nazis. The Jews in Vienna saw their situation worsen after the violence and destruction of Kristallnacht. The Juras knew they needed to leave and a single seat on the Kindertransport to England was their only option. The decision was made that Lisa would go by herself on the Kindertransport to hopefully be followed by her younger sister, then her older sister and parents. Once safely in England, Lisa lived in a refugee hostel on Willesden Lane with other displaced children from the Kindertransport. She still longed for her family in Austria despite developing a sense of belonging in the strange, new country. Remembering the promise she made to her mother “to hold on to her music,” Lisa obtained permission to use the hostel’s piano. Lisa reclaimed her art, filling the rooms with beautiful music and soothing the group’s longing for their own families and former lives. Over the next six years, Lisa remained dedicated to her music which spread from the hostel throughout London, bringing her fellow refugees and Londoners comfort, courage, and hope. This book and many others are available for purchase in the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s Patricia R. Sporn Museum Shop.

Extend your support Ask about matching gifts A donation to the Virginia Holocaust Museum, a 501(c)(3) organization, could double in value if your employer has a matching gift program. Please ask your human resource office about the possibility of doubling your contribution. We are forever grateful for the support of our visitors, and to our friends in the Richmond area community and beyond. For more information about donations you can visit www.vaholocaust.org/support-us or call us at 804 257 5400 ext. 243

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