From the Director's Chair

Icons of Loss

Lambert Collection

We're reaching out,
communicating about exhibits,
defining a new era in the life of
the Holocaust Memorial Center.

Samuel Bak created a visual
language to remind the world of
its most desperate moments.

Major Lambert's records from the
Dachau trials find a new home at
the HMC.

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President's Message

N WSLETTER
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With the onset
of a new year,
the Holocaust
Memorial Center
has renewed
vision and com-
pelling aspira-
tions. Through
Gary Karp
the tumultuous
upheaval in the financial markets and
community fabric over the last sixteen
months, we are truly fortunate to have
in our midst a bedrock institution that
has remained focused on its core values
and essential purpose of illuminating
the past and enlightening the future.
Our Executive Director, Stephen
Goldman, has brought incredible en-
ergy and wisdom. The exemplary work
of Dr. Guy Stern is world-renowned.
The passion and dedication of each and
every staff member, docent, volunteer,
and Board member is contagious. I'm
excited by the Holocaust Center's
continued growth as a source of knowl-
edge, with the artifacts and exhibits
coming our way, and by the bridges
we're building with surrounding
communities.
Like all institutions, we face chal-
lenges, but there is an energy that
serves as a catalyst for us to serve our
very important mission.
In a world where the number of
Holocaust survivors is diminishing, we
must embrace the unique opportunity
to hear their stories of courage, valor
and perseverance. We must encour-
age as many people as possible to hear
these firsthand accounts ... as that is
true power: power to deliver the les-
sons of the Holocaust. They are people
who were young, but unlike Anne
Frank, survived to tell their stories.
They are the people saved by righteous
gentiles and they are the people who
fought every which way to live. They
are our friends, relatives and pillars of
strength.

Winter 2010

28123 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48334

248.553.2400 • Fax: 248.553.2433
E-mail: info@holocaustcenter.org
www.holocaustcenter.org
www.facebook.com/HMCZFC

1.1.61

Anne Frank Sapling to Bloom in Michigan

"For there is hope for the tree, if it
be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch thereof will
not cease." Job 14:7
These words will soon become real-
ity as our Holocaust Center becomes
home to a sapling from Anne Frank's
tree! Anne gazed upon this tree during
her time in hiding and often included
it in her diary: "thickly covered with
leaves... on whose branches little
raindrops shine, appearing like silver."
While the life of the 150-year-old
ailing horse chestnut tree is coming to
an end, its symbolism will live on as
the result of a competition sponsored
by the Anne Frank Center, USA. The
journey of 11 saplings from Amster-
dam to sites in the U.S., including the

9/11 Memorial and the White House,
began last April.
The tree itself will be quarantined
for three years per the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, but we are mov-
ing forward at full speed with plans
for fundraising, exhibit design, and
educational programs. The tree will be
placed in a garden at the south side of
the campus, allowing visitors to walk
up the Ramp of the Righteous, and
encounter a permanent Anne Frank
Exhibit, including an attic stairwell,
where visitors can view the tree though
an attic pane.
The HMC is deeply indebted to
Joel Smith of Neumann Smith Archi-
tecture; Randall K. Metz of Grissim,
Metz, Andriese Associates Landscape

Architecture; and Gary Roberts of
Great Oaks Landscape. Their profes-
sional documentation and sterling
reputations went a long way toward
the acceptance of our proposal.

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HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER
FAMILY CAMPUS

An artist's rendering of the proposed
Anne Frank tree exhibit.

The Auschwitz Album: The Story of a Transport

On the day U.S. forces liberated
white photographic reproductions
Dora-Mittlebau concentration camp,
that document the arrival and
a prisoner named Lili Jacob, ill with
imprisonment of 3,500 Hungarian
typhus and searching for warm clothes, Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau. These
came upon a
powerful images,
photo album hid-
taken by Nazi
den in an SS bar-
SS officers in
racks cupboard.
May 1944, are
When she opened
the only visual
it, she discovered
evidence of what
pictures depict-
took place inside
ing the arrival
this notorious
of a transport of
death camp.
Hungarian Jews
The exhibition,
at the infamous
created for the
Guests at the members' preview.
Auschwitz
United Nations to
concentration camp. To her horror
commemorate the 60th anniversary
and amazement, images of her family,
of the liberation of Auschwitz-
friends, and herself were included in
Birkenau, is at the Holocaust
the album. She had been a prisoner
Memorial Center where it opened on
at Auschwitz before being transferred
the 65th anniversary of the liberation.
to Dora-Mittlebau 1945. In 1980,
It documents the unloading of the
Jacob donated the album detailing
overcrowded trains, the selection
"The Death Factory" to Yad Vashem,
process, the confiscation of property,
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
and the preparations for execution.
Remembrance Authority in Israel.
The album likely was not intended
The Auschwitz Album: The Story
for propaganda purposes, nor does it
of a Transport includes 40 black-and-
have any obvious personal use. One

assumes that it was prepared as an
official reference for a higher authority,
as were photo albums from other
concentration camps.
Lili never hid the album and news
of its existence was published many
times. She presented it as evidence
at the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt
during the 1960s. She kept it until the
famous Nazi-hunter, Serge Klarsfeld,
visited her in 1980 and convinced her
to donate the album to Yad Vashem.
In 1994 the album was restored in
Yad Vashem's conservation laboratory
and information on each one of
the photos entered into an archive
database. Archive staff was able to
compare and match the pictures with
aerial photos taken by the U.S. Army
Air Force on several occasions in 1944-
45. In 1999 the entire album was
scanned with the highest quality digital
equipment.

On exhibit at the HMC
January 27 - April 18