The Chattanooga Public Library is proud to announce the opening of Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Library Association.
The exhibit is free and open to the public through February 27, 2023.
With support from co-hosting sponsors The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and The Tennessee Holocaust Commission, CPL will also host a number of special events that accompany the exhibition. The first two events are:
- Scholars’ Panel on Thursday, February 2 at 5:00 pm ET: Featuring Daniel H. Magilow, Professor of German, UTK; Robert J. Norrell, Professor & Bernadotte Schmitt Chair of Excellence, UTK; John C. Swanson, Guerry Professor of History, UTC; and Alison Vick, Historian, Tennessee Holocaust Commission. Linda Moss Mines, Chattanooga and Hamilton County Historian, will moderate.
- Paper Clips Project on Monday, February 6 at 5:00 pm ET: Featuring a presentation and Q&A by Linda Hooper and students of Whitwell Middle School about the Paper Clips Project, a monument the school created for Holocaust Victims.
Seats for these events and others can be reserved for free at chattlibrary.org/exhibition.
This touring exhibition examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide during the 1930s and 1940s. Its intention is to make viewers leave with more questions than they started with.
“Elie Wiesel once said that ‘the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference’,” says Alison Lebovitz, exhibition steering committee member. “The Holocaust is an uncomfortable truth we all must learn to avoid repeating those mistakes again.”
Educators interested in guided class tours can schedule them at chattlibrary.org/exhibition. Funding is available to cover school bus costs, thanks to sponsors ArtsBuild and Unum.
The exhibition is located on the 3rd Floor at the Downtown Library, and it can be viewed during normal operating hours, Monday - Thursday from 8:00 am - 7:00 pm, and Friday and Saturday from 9:00 am - 6:00 pm.
Additional support for the exhibition is provided by Lyndhurst Foundation, EPB, Truist, McGriff, CHI Memorial, BCBST Community Trust, The Kennedy Foundation, Patten and Patten Investment Advisors, Southeastern Trust Company, First-Centenary United Methodist Church, Hamico Inc., The Tucker Foundation, Herb Cohn, Amy and John Cohen, and Helen Pregulman. CPL and the CPL Foundation are deeply grateful for the support and commitment of these partners.