Mara Cohen Ioannides

June 16, Missouri State University, Meyer Library, Room 107

Dr. Mara Cohen Ioannides will examine how the Jewish community of Springfield responded to the knowledge of the destruction of the Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe. Through sharing the community’s calls to action, demands of the local non-Jewish community and assistance to the European Jews after the War, the Jews of Springfield have shaped interfaith response even today. 

Erika Schwartz

June 23, Library Center Hatch Auditorium

Witness a Holocaust Survivor’s journey through family loss, intergenerational trauma, and turning deep pain into strength, healing and hope. Erika Schwartz was born in the spring of 1944 in Nazi-occupied Hungary. Out of her mother’s entire family, she and her mother were the sole survivors. Erika’s goal is to remind everyone that the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis consisted of six million individual people who loved and were loved by people who are still alive -- and that this isn't ancient history. Her message of hope has resonated with many: “our lives don't have to be defined by our circumstances.”

Daniel Greene

June 25, Library Center Hatch Auditorium

What did Americans know about the dangers of Nazism, and when did they know it? Americans and the Holocaust addresses these questions and provides a comprehensive look at the American public's responses to Nazism. Daniel Greene will explore the domestic conditions in the United States—including economic depression, isolationism, and antisemitism—that shaped Americans' responses to atrocities abroad. He will also discuss why rescuing Europe's Jews never became a priority for the U.S. government or the majority of the American people.

This program is part of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit series.

Rodney Fierce

June 30, Library Center Hatch Auditorium

Dr. Rodney Fierce, a Humanities teacher at Sonoma Academy, a private co-ed high school in Santa Rosa, CA, dives deep into the world of Marvel and how the Holocaust provided backstory to the famous character Magneto. Initially introduced in X-Men #1 (1963), subsequent comic book arcs explored Magneto's character development and revealed his past and the impact it had on his future. The storyline invited ongoing conversations about how Magneto's past trauma and historical perspective influence his assessment of the modern anti-mutant agenda prevalent in the world of the X-Men. Dr. Fierce will lead a discussion about how the Holocaust shaped Magneto's character and how X-Men used pop culture to broaden collective understanding of the Holocaust for younger generations.

This program is part of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit series.

John McManus

July 9, Library Center Hatch Auditorium

On April 4, 1945, United States Army units from the 89th Infantry Division and the 4th Armored Division seized Ohrdruf, the first of many Nazi concentration camps to be liberated in Germany. In the weeks that followed, as more camps were discovered, thousands of soldiers came face to face with the monstrous reality of Hitler’s Germany.

These men and women discovered the very depths of human-imposed cruelty and depravity: railroad cars stacked with emaciated, lifeless bodies; ovens full of incinerated human remains; warehouses filled with stolen shoes, clothes, luggage, and even eyeglasses; prison yards littered with implements of torture and dead bodies; and―perhaps most disturbing of all―the half-dead survivors of the camps. For the American soldiers of all ranks who witnessed such powerful evidence of Nazi crimes, the experience was life altering. Almost all were haunted for the rest of their lives by what they had seen, horrified that humans from ostensibly civilized societies were capable of such crimes. In this moving presentation, John C. McManus, Curators' Distinguished Professor of History at Missouri S&T, sheds new light on this often-overlooked aspect of the Holocaust and gives voice to the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history.

This program is part of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit series.

Todd Knowles

July 14, Virtual Library Center Hatch Auditorium 

For more than 125 years, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been gathering, preserving and sharing genealogical information worldwide. Todd Knowles, Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch, discovered his Jewish roots at an early age. Since then, he has worked to create a collection of genealogical records for nearly 1.5 million Polish Jews. Todd will demonstrate the use of FamilySearch’s new AI tools to rebuild the Jewish community of Fordon, Poland, a community wiped out during the Holocaust, and help attendees find records of their Jewish ancestors.   

Presented in partnership with FamilySearch and OGS

Sarah Panzer

July 21, Library Center Hatch Auditorium

Nazi Germany has often been depicted in American popular culture as monstrous or a historical abnormality. Yet, Nazism represented an extreme version of policies and ideas embraced in other Western countries, including the United States. Dr. Sarah Panzer will explore the ways Nazism spread beyond the borders of Germany and influenced issues of race, eugenics, immigration, and imperial expansion.

This program is part of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit series.

Sharon Cameron

July 23, Library Center Hatch Auditorium

Join Sharon Cameron as she discusses her novel "The Light in the Hidden Places." 

It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio — a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish.But everything changes when the German army invades Przemsyl. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto, and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for Helena, her six-year-old sister. And then comes the knock at the door. Izio’s brother Max has jumped from the train headed to a death camp. Stefania and Helena make the extraordinary decision to hide Max, and eventually twelve more Jews. Then they must wait, every day, for the next knock at the door, the one that will mean death. When the knock finally comes, it is two Nazi officers, requisitioning Stefania’s house for the German army.With two Nazis below, thirteen hidden Jews above, and a little sister by her side, Stefania has one more excruciating choice to make.

This program is part of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit series.