WAUPACA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A traveling exhibit examines the motives, pressures and fears which shaped Amercians’ responses to Nazisim, war and genocide. The exhibit, “Americans and the Holocaust,” making just one stop in Wisconsin. The important piece of history is being told at the Waupaca Area Public Library.
“It’s an honor to have this exhibit, we’re a small community obviously,” Waupaca Area Public Library Exhibit Room Coordinator Liz Kneer said. “Our goal is to bring in culturally relevant exhibits to our space.”
The exhibit shares the appalling details and untold stories of a dark time. It’s a traveling exhibit visiting 50 libraries across the country, the Waupaca Library being the only one in the Badger state.
“It really gives you a new perspective,” 8th grader at Chain Exploration Center Adelai Deunertl said.
While the exhibit is open to everyone, students from the School District of Waupaca are getting the chance to check it out first hand.
“It’s definitely a big part of our history and it’s very informational, and it kind of shows where we came from,” Deunertl said.
While students were learning about the Holocaust at the library earlier in the day, later, a special guest speaker stopped by Waupaca High School.
“I think it’s important for people to realize that genocide and extermination is not just historical, that it happens now,” Author Jeffrey Gingold said.
Gingold’s dad experienced the Holocaust firsthand. He talked about how his family escaped and survived in the Warsaw ghetto.
The experiences his dad and grandmother shared with Jeffrey over the years left him in awe.
“It wasn’t until they went into detail of what the Nazis did to them that I remember stopping many times and saying ‘they did what to you?'” he said.
Jeffrey talks with many schools in the Midwest, telling his dad’s story, hoping others will step up and share their stories.
The “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit will be on display at the Waupaca Area Public Library through Jan. 2.
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