spotlight
Rescuing The
Evidence
U.S. Holocaust Museum
shares its mission
at West Bloomfield event.
BARBARA STARK-NEMON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
S
cott Miller, director of curato-
rial affairs at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum (USHMM)
in Washington, D.C., gave a crowd
of 50 people at the West Bloomfield
home of Joanna and Jay Abramson a
rare opportunity to learn about the
museum’s dedicated efforts to collect
and preserve artifacts related to the
Holocaust last month.
With a “Rescue the Evidence”
initiative at its center, the museum
has established one of the world’s
foremost collections of documentary
evidence of the Holocaust, and con-
tinues to acquire, preserve and make
accessible a collection that includes
artifacts, photos, letters, documents,
diaries, books, oral histories, art, film
and music.
In his opening remarks, Miller
reminded the audience that while
the primary purpose of preserving
Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, Scott Miller and Margaret Stark
42
December 28 • 2017
jn
the evidence is historical and edu-
cational, the collections and exhib-
its and scholarship also serve as a
comparison and object lesson about
genocides everywhere.
THE STORIES BEHIND
THE ARTIFACTS
Miller presented five stories derived
from artifacts in the museum’s col-
lections. In one story, Miller pre-
sented an image of a prototype of
the Israeli flag and then told a story
of a passenger ship, the President
Warfield, which originally carried
travelers between Baltimore, Md.,
and Norfolk, Va. In 1947, with a crew
of mostly American Jews and flying
under a Guatemalan flag, the ship
left Baltimore, sailed to France and
took on more than 4,000 passengers
— Holocaust survivors from dis-
placed persons camps in Europe who
desperately wanted to go to Palestine
as part of the Aliyah Bet movement.
As the ship approached Haifa,
intent on breaching the British
blockade, and in full view of interna-
tional journalists, the Guatemalan
flag was lowered, and the white flag
with the Star of David was raised.
The ship, renamed Exodus, became
an important symbol of the struggle
to create the state of Israel, its story
the basis of Leon Uris’ novel Exodus.
The flag is now part of the USHMM
collection. While nearly all the arti-
facts in the Rescue the Evidence
initiative are donated, some, like this
flag, are purchased.
In a second heartbreaking story,
Miller showed a picture calendar that
a young father from Holland created
for the baby son that he’d arranged
to hide with a righteous Christian
family. Each square had a drawing
and Hebrew caption for a life cycle
event that the young man and his
wife anticipated for their son, but
would never see or share. The couple
were deported and perished in a con-
centration camp. The child and the
calendar survived.
Miller’s other stories were equally
compelling. The artifacts included
a goodbye letter to her husband
from a mother who wouldn’t allow
her disabled child to face the death
The artifacts U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Director Scott Miller shared in West Bloomfield
camp alone, and a detailed map of
Treblinka, drawn by one of the only
survivors of that camp, a document
that became very important in later
war crimes trials. Another fascinat-
ing rescue was a complete copy of
the Talmud, printed by the U.S. Army
for Jews in the displaced persons
camps.
Miller also shared the ways in
which the U.S. museum collabo-
rates with local Holocaust museums
around the country and the world.
He recognized Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld,
CEO of the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington Hills, and
Cheryl Guyer, director of develop-
ment, who attended the event.
Nicole Bela of the Midwest Region
of USHMM concluded the presenta-
tion by describing ways attendees
could become involved with the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,
including participation in next year’s
25th anniversary celebration of its
founding, and its many second- and
third-generation survivors’ groups.
Ann Arbor’s Evie Lichter, formerly
a docent at the museum, captured
the response of many who attended
the event. “Every personal article
such as a piece of clothing, a doll or
a handwritten letter is both heart-
warming and gut-wrenching. Telling
the story of the Holocaust in this inti-
mate, personal way is so powerful.
The museum is remarkable.” •
Individuals who believe they have items of
interest to donate to the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum can contact one of the
curators by emailing curator@ushmm.org or
calling (202) 488-2649. Barbara Stark-Nemon
is the author of Even in Darkness.