At the Museum

Susan Suarez, President & CEO

We have great news to share! Our education department offices have just relocated into the Museum’s new north wing! Students and teachers will soon be using the new Herbert H. Schiff classroom space there as well.

Thanks to careful planning by the Museum Board; the architect, David Corban; and PBS Contractors, the demolition and construction in the adjoining suites never disrupted activities or programs in the Museum. This was made possible by the decision to delay breaking through the shared wall until later this month, after “season” and the school year-end. Once the two wall openings are completed, Capitol Museum Services (CMS) will begin the installation of the north wing’s new displays and exhibits, including the important Auschwitz Gallery and the Shelley and Stephen Einhorn Gallery for “Other Genocides and Human Rights.”

Please note that the Museum will be closed from approximately May 8 to July 10, 2023 for construction and installation of the new exhibits. Please visit our website, www.HMCEC.org, for further updates on the closure and reopening dates.

A few naming opportunities are still available — please contact me for details at Susan@hmcec.org or call 239-2639200. A Grand Opening ceremony will be held this fall, and we hope you will attend! More information on the ceremony will be available in the coming months.

May programs

Wednesday, May 3 – “Movies That Matter – Steve Brazina Memorial Film Series” Zoom panel discussion. We invite you to join us for the Zoom panel discussion of the documentary “APART” on May 3 from 4 to 5 p.m. (EDT U.S. and Canada). This documentary looks at the impact on women incarcerated on drugrelated charges and their families. Zoom panelists will include Tammy Franklin, associate director of Academy Programs at Prison Fellowship, and a representative from Avow's counseling program for children with incarcerated parents. Visit www.hmcec.org to RSVP. One week prior to the Zoom discussion, a link to watch "APART" will be sent to all RSVPs. The Zoom panel discussion link will be sent 24 hours prior to the program.

Sunday, May 7 – VE-Day – Complimentary Museum admission with RSVP. Since the Museum is closed Monday, May 8 for VE Day, we will offer complimentary admission on Sunday, May 7. Due to space limitations, an RSVP is required. Visit our website, www.HMCEC.org, to sign up.

Local connections to one of our exhibits

Have you seen our informative exhibit on the post-war displaced persons camps in the Bobbi and Randy Heiligman Gallery? These camps were created by the Allies to help house millions of homeless refugees after WWII. In addition to civilians fleeing battlefronts, refugees included newly liberated Holocaust survivors and slave laborers.

Refugees were originally housed according to their country of origin. Early into the displaced persons era, survivors had to live in very close quarters with virulently antisemitic neighbors. Aware of this, the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees recommended to President Truman that special camps be created to shield Jewish displaced persons from further harm. He forwarded the report to Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who ordered it done.

As living conditions began to improve for them, survivors became more hopeful. It was possible to find the whereabouts of family members who may have survived, as was the case with late local survivor Abe Price. He was able to find out where one of his brothers was. Once Price immigrated to the U.S., he petitioned his congressional representatives to help bring his brother here to join him. You can see copies of Price’s letter in our exhibit.

Old friends were reunited and new friends became family for those who had no one left. People met, fell in love and got married. There are stories of the same wedding dress being used by many refugee brides in a camp because of the scarcity of material.

Approximately 2,000 babies were born in these new displaced persons camps, including several of our Museum volunteers such as Hadassah Schulman and Shirley Besikof. Schulman, the Museum’s oral and visual history project coordinator, was born in the Landesberg Displaced Persons Camp. The small child’s coat in the exhibit belonged to Schulman. It was created by her mother, Mania Licht Kohn, from a coat she wore during her imprisonment in Auschwitz and BergenBelson. Her mother had been a seamstress before the war. The coat included a small fur collar — her father had been a furrier before the war began.

Shirley Besikof and her parents at the Bergen-Belson Displaced Persons Camp

Besikof, a guest relations and education volunteer, was born in the BergenBelson Displaced Persons Camp. Her mother and father were students before the war and endured multiple concentration camps during the Holocaust. They met after the war in the Bergen-Belson Displaced Persons Camp, where they lived from 1945-1949. Shirley said her father had a favorite story he told often about their immigration to the U.S. When he asked one of the American soldiers in early 1949 if he had ever heard of their destination, St. Paul, Minnesota, the soldier laughed and said, “you are going to Siberia!” Shirley is the child in the stroller in this photo, taken in front of one of the barracks at Bergen-Belson.

Exciting 2023-2024 programs

In addition to opening the north wing, we are completing program and exhibit planning for July 2023 through June 2024. We will host several field trips from local summer camps, offer a new “Movies That Matter” series in the fall, host the Grand Opening of the North Wing, and feature exciting, new special exhibits in the expanded Estelle and Stuart Price Gallery: “Forgeries of the Holocaust,” “Stitching History” and “Lawyers Without Rights.”

We hope to see you this month or join us in July when we reopen!