SAN ANTONIO – Educating the community about the atrocities and remembering its victims are the goals behind the San Antonio Public Library and the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio’s “The Holocaust: Learn & Remember” series.
Standing up and doing the right thing is what Nammie Ichilov, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Antonio, believes is crucial for humanity and the reason behind the month-long series. The series will include both in-person and online programs and exhibitions.
“To let things happen is just not acceptable,” Ichilov said. “We’ve got to be able to make a difference, whatever we can do in our capacity.”
The Holocaust Memorial Museum is actually in the Jewish Community Center Campus and it is where you can see several images and artifacts highlighting the Jewish culture and Holocaust.
“The theme this year is immigration and refugees, so we’re focusing on people who were displaced by the Holocaust, the people who moved to other countries during the Holocaust,” Scott Williams, community and public relations manager of the San Antonio Public Library said.
Presently, there is an exhibition at the Westfall Branch Library, located at 611 Rosedale Court, that is highlighting displaced people from the Holocaust and their resilience. The week will culminate with a speaker event on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Jan. 27.
“It’s really critically important that we as a community and as a people, step back and take a moment to reflect and learn about what’s happened in our recent history, so that we can try our best to avoid it happening again,” Williams said.
Ichilov said especially with recent events at a Dallas area synagogue and even with local antisemitic material and protests that occurred in October of last year, it is more important than ever to remember and learn from the past to become better as a society.
“We work really hard at making sure that people understand that standing up for anybody, standing up for any minority group, standing up for any group that needs support is a critical aspect of just being a human being,” Ichilov said.