April 14, 2003
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT SHOWCASES INSTITUTION’S IMPACT
Also in April – Secretary of State Colin L. Powell as keynote speaker at Days of Remembrance observance; Special 10th Anniversary exhibition opening, Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings
Washington, D.C. — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will launch its 10th Anniversary year with a series of major events April 29 and 30 at the Museum and in the Capitol Rotunda:
April 29:
An American Mosaic: Lessons from the Holocaust
Museum’s Hall of Remembrance
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Participants include the following individuals who have been deeply affected by the Museum and who continue to apply those lessons in their work as they guide others:
- Chief Charles Ramsey, Washington Metropolitan Police Department, whose initial Museum visit sparked the creation of the Law Enforcement and Society program in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League.
- Rev. Alvin Anderson, Sr., Pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Columbia, TN, whose involvement with the Museum’s Community Partnerships led to a Holocaust-based literacy project that is now in eight southeastern states and the District of Columbia.
- Ilcia Moran, who first visited the Museum eight years ago as a Washington, D.C., public school student participating in Bringing the Lessons Home, and has since worked with the Museum in a variety of posts, now serving as an ambassador for Community Partnerships.
- Harry Etlinger and Johanna Hirsch Liebmann, Holocaust survivors who knew one another as teenagers in Germany and were reunited after 64 years through the Museum’s Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
- Sheila Hansen, a Spearfish, SD, teacher and librarian, whose work as one of the Senior Education Fellows trained by the Museum led to a nationally recognized project on South Dakota liberators.
- Cadet Edwin E. Morales, West Point, to be joined by a midshipman from the U.S. Naval Academy, both future military officers who participated in special Museum programming for their Academies.
- Donald McComb, a Gaithersburg, MD, chemistry teacher, who was so convinced of the Museum’s potential – even prior to its opening – that he took a second job so that his family could make a substantial gift of support.
- Lee Ielpi, retired New York City firefighter, who lost a firefighter son at the World Trade Center, and was deeply moved by his visit to the Museum as part of the World Trade Center memorial planning committee.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council Chairman Fred S. Zeidman and Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield, will also deliver brief remarks.
April 29:
Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings
Reception and Exhibition Opening
Museum’s Hall of Witness and Kimmel Rowan Gallery
7:00 p.m.
This exhibition provides a vivid look at the first steps the Nazis took to suppress human freedom, and the strong response – particularly among journalists, artists, scholars and writers – that occurred in the U.S. both immediately and in the years thereafter.
April 30:
Days of Remembrance Observance
U.S. Capitol Rotunda
12:00 p.m.
Secretary of State Colin Powell to deliver keynote address
Observance to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The Museum was dedicated on April 22, 1993, and opened to the public on April 26. For more information on these special events and the Museum’s other 10th Anniversary activities, including the upcoming special exhibition Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story, visit www.ushmm.org.
Media Notes: All events are by invitation only. Media interested in covering must RSVP in advance. To receive advance materials, including photos, to arrange interviews with participants or a preview of Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings, please contact Andrew Hollinger at 202-488-6133 or ahollinger@ushmm.org.
