Remember the Past, Transform the Future
This morning, 40 librarians joined RLA CE Committee members for our annual fall field trip. This year, the group toured the recently opened Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, located in Skokie, IL. Besides being quite an impressive facility, the museum contains an incredible collection of artifacts, artwork, videos, and other materials that combine to remind visitors of the Holocaust and urge people to act against genocide today.
The group started with a tour of the Karkomi Permanent Exhibition led by some very well-informed docents. According to the museum’s website:
The Zev and Shifra Karkomi Permanent Exhibition tells the story of the Holocaust, from pre-war German life through ghetto life and concentration camps to eventual liberation and resettlement throughout the world, with a special focus on post-war life in Israel and Skokie. More than 500 artifacts, documents and photographs help illustrate the narrative of the Holocaust while testimonies from local survivors add personal detail.
After touring the exhibition, the group visited the Brill Resource Center and met with head librarian Matthew Sackel, who knows 5 different languages! Sackel gave us a glimpse of what life is like for a solo special librarian. He spoke about the process of getting the library up and running, starting with large piles of books stacked up on the floor to cataloging the mostly donated collection and choosing an ILS. With the help of a large group of volunteers, the library’s collection now includes up to 13,000 items, all of which are searchable through the library’s online catalog. Sackel also mentioned that he will soon add the library’s records to OCLC. Although the library does not allow materials to be circulated, there is a beautiful reading room and 16 computers to allow people to take full advantage of the library’s resources during open hours. Access to the library is free and open to the public (12 years or older unless supervised by an adult). To learn more about the Brill Resource Center, check out this Pioneer Press article.
Did you join us for this field trip? Please share your thoughts and impressions by leaving a comment below.
Our group talked about books we’ve read about Holocaust and these are the titles that came up. Please feel free to add some of your own.
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
Hana’s Suitcase (Karen Levine)
A Mad Desire to Dance (Elie Wiesel)
The Nazi’s Officer’s Wife: How one Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust (Edith Beer)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne)..this is also a very powerful movie.
I too found myself thinking of books I had read-The Zookeeper’s Wife, Stones from the River, Those who Save Us.
Speaking of books, the library space has the same sort of feeling of enclosure and intimacy that I found so striking in the exhibit areas.
We’ve done several holocaust/genocide books in our discussion group. Maus, the graphic novel by Art Spiegleman was probably one of the most interesting. Well, it generated one of the most interesting discussions. A COMIC BOOK?!? On the Holocaust?!? Waitwaitwait – it won what? the Pulitzer Prize?!?! A COMIC BOOK?!?
/sigh, sometimes I love leading a book club.
Hotel Rwanda was another stirring book we’ve done with our group. I was amazed at how innocuously it all seemed to begin – with radio spots that got more and more strident and hateful in the leadup to the massacres.
This past August, we read the Rape of Nanking – an incredible, horrifying story that makes you wonder not just how people can do those things, but also how that event nearly escaped our collective memories.
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay takes place in New York City during World War II. The Holocaust has a distant and always present impact on the two main characters.
The tour was great! Our docent was very knowledgeable and willingly shared her knowledge with us. I would recommend this tour and museum to anyone interested in anything to do with WWII. The information was displayed and presented in a respectful and non-threatening way.
Thank you so much for organizing this field trip. The museum is very impressive and has features that are unique, even if you’ve already seen the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D. C. Our docent was excellent, pointing out architectural and other details that we probably would not have noticed if we had gone on our own.
Thanks for joining us! We hope to see you again at future RLA CE events. Our field trip is usually in the fall but we have other programs throughout the year.