The Vincennes University Shake Library has announced they are one of 50 U.S. libraries newly selected to host Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association (ALA).
Following a highly successful tour of 50 libraries from 2021 to 2023, the touring library exhibition, based on the special exhibition of the same name at the Museum in Washington, D.C., will travel to an additional 50 U.S. libraries from 2024 to 2026, covering wide distances from Hawaii and Alaska to Texas and New Hampshire.
Americans and the Holocaust will be on display at the Shake Library, along with a series of related special events, from March 17th, 2025, to April 28th, 2025.
The 1,100-square-foot exhibition examines various aspects of American society including the government, the military, refugee aid organizations, the media, and the general public. Drawing on a remarkable collection of primary sources from the 1930s and ’40s, the exhibition tells the stories of Americans who acted in response to Nazism, challenging the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. It provides a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust.
In addition to the traveling exhibition being on loan, the Shake Library received a $3,000 cash grant to support public programs and covered one library staff member’s attendance at an orientation workshop at the Museum.
The Shake Library’s keynote speaker will present “Echoes from Auschwitz: The Story of Eva Mozes Kor” by Trent Andrews from the CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center on March 27th, 2025. Several other programming partnerships are expected for the exhibit and will be released with the full programming schedule in January 2025.
For more information about Americans and the Holocaust and related programming at the Shake Library, visit vinu.libguides.com/USHolocaustExhibit. To learn more about the exhibition, visit ushmm.org/americans-ala.
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