Americans and the Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust history raises important questions about what the international community, including the United States, could have done to stop the rise of Nazism in Germany and its assault on Europe’s Jews. Questions include: What did Americans know? How did Americans respond? What more could have been done?

Americans and the Holocaust looks closely at America’s role in this history. The United States alone could not have prevented the Holocaust, but more could have been done to save some of the six million Jews that were killed. This exhibition examines the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide.

March 17th, 2025

Exhibit Opens

March 19th, 2025
6:30pm

Opening Event: America and the Holocaust
Barbara Burstin, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Burstin is an expert on America and the Holocaust as well as Jewish history in Western Pennsylvania. She will speak from her scholarship about how Americans viewed the Holocaust and make connections to the history of Western Pennsylvania.

March 24th, 2025
6:30pm

Beaver County and the Holocaust
Eric Lidji, Heinz History Center

Mr. Lidji is an expert on Jewish history in Western Pennsylvania. His presentation will focus on connections between Holocaust history and the history of Western Pennsylvania.

April 2nd, 2025
6:30pm

Generations Speaker

Deborah Stueber is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. She will interview her parents about their experiences and offer her perspective as the child of survivors.

TBD

“The Sunflower” book discussion
Dr. Jeff Cole, Geneva College

Dr. Cole and colleagues from Geneva College will lead a book discussion for college students around the topics of Holocaust history, antisemitism, and forgiveness. Drawing on essays in the second half of The Sunflower, students will be challenged to consider multiple religious and non-religious perspectives on forgiveness. Connections will be made to elements of the exhibit which relate to the responsibility of Americans to help Holocaust victims and refugees and American antisemitism.

“Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life”
October 27 program/REACH

This panel presentation and documentary screening will focus on the experiences of survivors of the Tree of Life shooting on October 27, 2018, in Pittsburgh and the issue of antisemitism in contemporary American society. Connections will be made to the exhibit through the inclusion of information about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society which assisted with the resettlement of Holocaust victims.

April 28th, 2025

Exhibit Ends