This exhibit has moved on to the Ballston Spa and will be available in December!
Email: bal-director@sals.edu
Address: 21 Milton Avenue
Ballston Spa, NY, 12020
The Mechanicville District Public Library brings “Messages From Survivors,” a powerful new exhibit about the Holocaust, survival and resiliency to Mechanicville, NY.
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was a systematic and state-sponsored genocide that occurred during World War II, primarily between 1941 and 1945. It was carried out by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, resulting in the persecution and mass murder of approximately six million European Jews, as well as millions of other individuals, including Romani people, disabled individuals, Poles, Slavs, political dissidents, homosexuals, and others who were considered “undesirable” by the Nazi regime.
“We could never believe that a thing like this could happen. But it did happen. . . . That’s why it’s very important to tell people and hopefully it will not repeat itself. This is my husband’s dream and mine.” —Anna Jacobs, Holocaust survivor
The Mechanicville District Public Library presents a traveling exhibit, “Messages From Survivors: One Family’s Holocaust Legacy.” The exhibit is built on 40 years of filming a family of Holocaust survivors in the Bronx, Miami and a bungalow colony in the Catskills between 1962 and 2016.
In the exhibit, six short videos introduce the Holocaust through powerful personal stories of a family of Holocaust survivors. Six exhibit panels researched using the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s resources provide historical context for the video footage. The exhibit covers the family’s experiences from 1938 through the 21st century.
A feature of the exhibit is the use of QR codes to bring the Holocaust survivors’ voices directly into people’s lives, both onsite and at home. Take-home cards keep the story alive once visitors return home. Each card contains stories of family members–some who survived and some who didn’t along with QR code links to the videos.
“I want people to feel as if they are personally meeting my family. My parents met at a forced labor camp. My mother’s entire immediate family was murdered and my father lost most of his family. My mother said, “No one could believe things could get so bad. But they did.” Their message to the world was, “Don’t let it happen again. No place. In no country.” We hope this exhibit will inspire every community to address even the smallest incidents of hatred, injustice and cruelty.
—Roz Jacobs, Co-Creator of Messages from Survivors
Exhibit co-creator, Laurie Weisman adds, “The Jacobs family show us that resilience and joy can co-exist with loss and pain. By sharing their stories, we share their hard-earned wisdom with the world.”
Working in partnership with Southern Adirondack Library System and The Memory Project Productions, Inc., we bring Messages From Survivors to the Mechanicville District Public Library during the month of November.
“We’re excited to present this new program to not only Mechanicville residents, but neighboring communities as well because there are so few survivors around to share their experiences and these personal stories offer first-person testimony that makes it real. We hope the take-home cards will generate meaningful conversations at homes and in schools.”
About The Memory Project Productions, Inc.
The Memory Project Productions, Inc. creators of Messages From Survivors is a New York-based non-profit organization that creates exhibits and programs devoted to social justice, art and remembrance. Its exhibits have toured the U.S., Poland and Hungary. Their award-winning film, Finding Kalman, has been broadcast nationally on PBS stations.
Michelle Duell, Library Director would like to kindly thank Laurie Weisman (The Memory Project Productions, Inc):, Southern Adirondack Library System; and Assemblymember Carrie Woerner in providing a generous library in-aid grant to support funding/access for this unforgettable exhibit.
Request library materials on this subject and we’ll contact you when they’re available!