Six million Jews, along with millions of other victims—including people with disabilities, homosexuals, political dissidents, and Black citizens—were murdered during the Holocaust that devastated communities throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. Numbers, however, don’t reveal the personal stories of countless individuals whose lives were drastically changed because of this historical event. That’s why each year, the Georgetown Public Library and local nonprofit Congregation Havurah Shalom of Sun City present a public program commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This year’s program, A Reason to Remember, narrows the lens from millions to five families in one small German village from 1933 to 1942. “There are many, many accounts of genocide during the Holocaust and many more are lost,” says Hutto librarian Angela Hartman, who has attended many Congregation Havurah Shalom programs focused on Holocaust education.
Every single story is significant.
A Reason to Remember humanizes this historical event by introducing the individual people in these families.”
BRINGING THE STORY TO GEORGETOWN
The program begins Sunday, April 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Hewlett Room at the Georgetown Public Library with featured speaker Deborah Roth-Howe, the daughter of Holocaust refugees who escaped Germany and rebuilt their lives in Chicago. In her talk, she will recount the history of five Jewish families who lived in Roth (pronounced “Rōt”), Germany, a rural village where Jews had been part of community life for generations. They were neighbors, friends, and business owners. The men in these families had served in the German army during World War I.
A Reason to Remember’s 28-panel exhibit and accompanying eight-minute video traces the families’ lives from relative stability in 1933 through the steady tightening of Nazi persecution. Visitors will see how discrimination moved from rhetoric to policy, from social exclusion to systematic destruction.
What happened in Roth was a microcosm of what unfolded across Europe, and serves as a reminder of how easily history could repeat itself.
The goal of the exhibit, Congregation Havurah Shalom member Lenora Hausman says, is “to show the effects of prejudice and racial hate and the need to speak out against injustices. We need to remember history could repeat itself.” Angela agrees. “This exhibit not only explains the history of what happened to these specific families but is a reminder to students and adults of what can happen when hate is not challenged and cruelty to people considered different or inferior is met with apathy.”
Call To Remember
The Reason to Remember exhibit is free and open to the public, no registration required. Following the talk, the exhibit will remain on display at the library from April 13 through May 21 during regular library hours. Docent-led tours are offered daily for youth groups, private and homeschool students, church groups, and community organizations. The material is recommended for grade levels 6 and up.