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Join the San Antonio Public Library and the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio for the 11th Annual Holocaust Learn and Remember program series, running from January 3 - 29, 2023.
The 2023 theme of censorship focuses on how the Nazi regime controlled the information that Jews and other persecuted groups received during the Holocaust as additional methods of suppression. From propaganda to book burning to control of mail in and out of Germany, the Nazi regime used a variety of censorship tactics to restrict the public’s access to information.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Antisemitic Propaganda: Then and Now
Dr. Roger Barnes
Virtual - Register here
Monday, January 9
3-4 PM
Join Dr. Barnes as he provides an overview of the various forms of Nazi propaganda during Hitler's regime and what neo-Nazi propaganda in the U.S. is like today. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
We Will Not Be Silenced: Our Words, Our Stories
Reyna Stovall
Great Northwest Branch Library
Monday, January 9
6:30-7:30 PM
Join Ms. Stovall as she discusses the wartime correspondence sent from people in Nazi-occupied Europe and how their censored letters fit into the broader stories of their lives and experiences. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
Antisemitic Propaganda: Then and Now
Dr. Roger Barnes
Virtual - Register here
Tuesday, January 10
6-7 PM
Join Dr. Barnes as he provides an overview of the various forms of Nazi propaganda during Hitler's regime and what neo-Nazi propaganda in the U.S. is like today. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
Writing Home about the Holocaust: The Military Mail of German Soldiers in WWII
Dr. Edward Westermann
Central Library
Wednesday, January 11
12-1 PM
Join Dr. Westermann as he looks at examples of letters sent home from German soldiers during WWII and examines the types of information that they shared with their families and loved ones in Germany. Despite strict censorship rules, it is clear that German men and women in the occupied East oftentimes openly described acts of atrocity and the persecution of Jews. These letters also reveal that the Holocaust and the destruction of the European Jews was not a hidden secret for many Germans on the home front. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A.
Writing Home about the Holocaust: The Military Mail of German Soldiers in WWII REGISTRATION FULL
Dr. Edward Westermann
Virtual
Sunday, January 15
2-3 PM
Join Dr. Westermann as he looks at examples of letters sent home from German soldiers during WW II and examines the types of information that they shared with their families and loved ones in Germany. Despite strict censorship rules, it is clear that German men and women in the occupied East oftentimes openly described acts of atrocity and the persecution of Jews. These letters also reveal that the Holocaust and the destruction of the European Jews was not a hidden secret for many Germans on the home front. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A.
We Will Not Be Silenced: Our Words, Our Stories
Reyna Stovall
Virtual - Register here
Tuesday, January 17
6:30-7:30 PM
Join Ms. Stovall as she discusses the wartime correspondence sent from people in Nazi-occupied Europe and how their censored letters fit into the broader stories of their lives and experiences. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
May History Attest for Us: Why the Jewish Voice Was Censored by the Nazis (And How It Broke Through) with Dr. J. E. Wolfson
This program has been cancelled and replaced with:
Antisemitic Propaganda: Then and Now
Dr. Roger Barnes (presenting via Zoom)
Thousand Oaks Branch Library
Wednesday, January 18
11 AM - 12 PM
Join Dr. Barnes as he provides an overview of the various forms of Nazi propaganda during Hitler's regime and what neo-Nazi propaganda in the U.S. is like today. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
May History Attest for Us: Why the Jewish Voice Was Censored by the Nazis (And How It Broke Through) with Dr. J. E. Wolfson
This program has been cancelled and replaced with:
We Will Not Be Silenced: Our Words, Our Stories
Reyna Stovall (presenting via Zoom)
Las Palmas Branch Library
Thursday, January 19
11 AM - 12 PM
Join Ms. Stovall as she discusses the wartime correspondence sent from people in Nazi-occupied Europe and how their censored letters fit into the broader stories of their lives and experiences. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
We Will Not Be Silenced: Our Words, Our Stories
Reyna Stovall
Virtual - Register here
Sunday, January 22
1-2 PM
Join Ms. Stovall as she discusses the wartime correspondence sent from people in Nazi-occupied Europe and how their censored letters fit into the broader stories of their lives and experiences. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
CLOSING PROGRAM
An Evening with Anna Salton Eisen
Monday, January 23
6:30 - 8 PM
Mission Branch Library
3134 Roosevelt Ave., 78214
Visit our YouTube channel to sign up for a reminder when this event is live on YouTube.
Join us for the conclusion of this year’s Holocaust Learn and Remember series. Hear from Anna Salton Eisen, an author and second-generation Holocaust Survivor, as she recounts her accidental discovery, as a youth, of two watercolor paintings by her father that depict the horrors of the Holocaust. She then set out in secret to uncover the truth about his past. Only years later, after she confronted her father about the importance of sharing his story, did he relent and join her on what would become a healing journey.
This year’s Holocaust Learn and Remember exhibit, War of Ideas: Nazi Censorship and Book Burning, will also be available for viewing before and after Ms. Eisen’s presentation. Light kosher refreshments will be served and copies of Ms. Eisen’s book "Pillar of Salt" will be available for purchase.
Traveling Exhibit
War of Ideas: Nazi Censorship and Book Burning
|
Cody Branch Library Mondays & Tuesdays from 12 - 8PM |
Mission Branch Library Mondays & Tuesdays from 12 - 8PM |
On May 10, 1933, German university students across the nation, in support of Nazi ideology, burned over 25,000 books considered “un-German.” The book burnings represented the beginning of a period of censorship and cultural control by Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime that lasted from 1933-1945. Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda, supported the book burnings as part of his mission to bring arts and culture in line with Nazi ideology.
Visit Cody or Mission during this exhibit to learn more about how Nazi leaders used censorship and wide-spread propaganda to control access to information and suppress opposition to the Nazi regime.
The Terrible Secret by
This book seeks to answer three vital questions about the worldwide response to Hitler's "Final Solution": When did information about the genocide first become known to Jews and non-Jews? Through what channels was this information transmitted? What was the reaction of those who received word of the slaughter? Walter Laqueur's quest focuses on the period between June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and December 1942, by which time the United Nations had confirmed the news about the mass killings in a common declaration. By the end of 1942, Chelmno, Belzec, Auschwitz, Maidanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka were fully operational and two and a half million Jews had already been killed. According to Laqueur, word started to spread soon after extermination began. But there is no easy, straightforward answer to the wider question of why there was a failure to read and correctly interpret the signs in 1941; why so many individuals and governments actually chose to deny the reality of genocide when faced with incontrovertible evidence. A probing and disturbing work, The Terrible Secret explores one of the most perplexing aspects of the Holocaust, a political and psychological riddle of general significance to the understanding of the history of our times.
We Are on Our Own by
A stunning memoir of a mother and her daughter's survival in WWII and their subsequent lifelong struggle with faith In this captivating and elegantly illustrated graphic memoir, Miriam Katin retells the story of her and her mother's escape on foot from the Nazi invasion of Budapest. With her father off fighting for the Hungarian army and the German troops quickly approaching, Katin and her mother are forced to flee to the countryside after faking their deaths. Leaving behind all of their belongings and loved ones, and unable to tell anyone of their whereabouts, they disguise themselves as a Russian servant and illegitimate child, while literally staying a few steps ahead of the German soldiers. We Are on Our Own is a woman's attempt to rebuild her earliest childhood trauma in order to come to an understanding of her lifelong questioning of faith. Katin's faith is shaken as she wonders how God could create and tolerate such a wretched world, a world of fear and hiding, bargaining and theft, betrayal and abuse. The complex and horrific experiences on the run are difficult for a child to understand, and as a child, Katin saw them with the simple longing, sadness, and curiosity she felt when her dog ran away or a stranger made her mother cry. Katin's ensuing lifelong struggle with faith is depicted throughout the book in beautiful full-color sequences. We Are on Our Own is the first full-length graphic novel by Katin, at the age of sixty-three.
Sophie's Choice by
Three stories are told: a young Southerner wants to become a writer; a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and of an awful wound in that woman's past--one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.
Fahrenheit 451 by
Nearly seventy years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn't live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
The 23rd Psalm by
In September, 1939, George Lucius Salton's boyhood in Tyczyn, Poland, was shattered by escalating violence and terror under German occupation. His father, a lawyer, was forbidden to work, but eleven-year-old George dug potatoes, split wood, and resourcefully helped his family. They suffered hunger and deprivation, a forced march to the Rzeszow ghetto, then eternal separation when fourteen-year-old George and his brother were left behind to labor in work camps while their parents were deported in boxcars to die in Belzec
Night by
A new translation from the French by Marion Wiesel. Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man. Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.
You Can't Say That! by
What happens when freedom of expression comes under threat? In frank and wide-ranging interviews, historian and critic Leonard S. Marcus probes the experience of thirteen leading authors of books for young people. A powerful photo essay on transgender teens is called anti-religious and anti-family. A meticulously researched primer on sex education stirs up accusations of pornography and child abuse. Picture books about two mommies (or two penguin daddies) set off a hue and cry. Two hugely popular children's series run afoul of would-be censors, one for its scatological humor, the other because it's deemed too scary. Kids' books that touch on race, sex, LGBTQ matters, the occult, "coarse language," and more have found themselves under the scrutiny of those who challenge First Amendment rights. Tune in as thirteen top children's and young adult authors speak out about what it's like to have your work banned or challenged in America today. Prompted by Leonard S. Marcus's insightful questions, they discuss why their books have faced censorship--both blatant and "soft"--how the challenges have or haven't affected their writing, and why some people feel they have the right to deny access to books. In addition, Leonard S. Marcus puts First Amendment challenges in a historical context and takes a promising look at the vibrant support network that has risen up to protect and defend young people's rights. Authors interviewed include: Matt de la Peña Robie H. Harris Susan Kuklin David Levithan Meg Medina Lesléa Newman Katherine Paterson Dav Pilkey Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell Sonya Sones R. L. Stine Angie Thomas.
The Diary of a Young Girl by
The diary as Anne Frank wrote it: "The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust ... remains astonishing and excruciating" (The New York Times Book Review). In a modern translation, this definitive edition contains entries about Anne's burgeoning sexuality and confrontations with her mother that were cut from previous editions. Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been a beloved and deeply admired monument to the indestructible nature of the human spirit, read by millions of people and translated into more than fifty-five languages. Doubleday, which published the first English translation of the diary in 1952, now offers a new translation that captures Anne's youthful spirit and restores the original material omitted by Anne's father, Otto--approximately thirty percent of the diary. The elder Frank excised details about Anne's emerging sexuality, and about the often-stormy relations between Anne and her mother. Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation forces, hid in the back of an Amsterdam office building for two years. This is Anne's record of that time. She was thirteen when the family went into the "Secret Annex," and in these pages, she grows to be a young woman and proves to be an insightful observer of human nature as well. A timeless story discovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For young readers and adults, it continues to bring to life this young woman, who for a time survived the worst horrors the modern world had seen--and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.
My Family for the War by
Winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder medal for most oustanding children's book in translation. Escaping Nazi Germany on the kindertransport changes one girl's life forever At the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to safety in England. Taken in by strangers who soon become more like family than her real parents, Frances (as she is now known) courageously pieces together a new life for herself because she doesn't know when or if she'll see her true family again. Against the backdrop of war-torn London, Frances struggles with questions of identity, family, and love, and these experiences shape her into a dauntless, charming young woman. Originally published in Germany, Anne Voorhoeve's award-winning novel is filled with humor, danger, and romance.
Children of the Slaughter by
This book tells the story of these children, including Jews and other victims of the Nazis, as well as Hitler Youth, themselves exploited by power-hungry adults. The effects on children of Holocaust survivors are examined, as are the effects of the Holocaust on young Jews, Germans, and others in the years since.
The Complete Maus by
A brutally moving work of art--widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written--Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats; Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.
Attack of the Black Rectangles by
Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write. When Mac first opens his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic and finds some words blacked out, he thinks it must be a mistake. But then when he and his friends discover what the missing words are, he's outraged. Someone in his school is trying to prevent kids from reading the full story. But who? Even though his unreliable dad tells him to not get so emotional about a book (or anything else), Mac has been raised by his mom and grandad to call out things that are wrong. He and his friends head to the principal's office to protest the censorship... but her response doesn't take them seriously. So many adults want Mac to keep his words to himself. Mac's about to see the power of letting them out. In Attack of the Black Rectangles, acclaimed author Amy Sarig King shows all the ways truth can be hard... but still worth fighting for.
Number the Stars by
The unforgettable Newbery Medal-winning novel from Lois Lowry. As the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen's family takes in Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family. Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war. A modern classic of historical fiction, Number the Stars has won generations of fans. "Readers are taken to the very heart of Annemarie's experience, and, through her eyes, come to understand the true meaning of bravery." (School Library Journal)
The Butterfly by
Since the Nazis, with their tall boots, have marched into Monique's small French village, terrorizing it, nothing surprises her. It is war! Then, one night, Monique encounters "the little ghost" sitting at the end of her bed. When she turns out to be - not a ghost at all - but a young Jewish girl named Sevrine, who has been hiding from the Nazis in Monique's own basement, how could Monique not be surprised! In turns heart-wrenching and touching, Patricia Polacco once again dips into her own family's history to reveal this passionate and true tale of friendship from the French Resistance.
The Whispering Town by
The dramatic story of neighbors in a small Danish fishing village who, during the Holocaust, shelter a Jewish family waiting to be ferried to safety in Sweden - based on a true story. It is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Denmark. Anett and her parents are hiding a Jewish woman and her son, Carl, in their cellar until a fishing boat can take them across the sound to neutral Sweden. The soldiers patrolling their street are growing suspicious, so Carl and his mama must make their way to the harbor despite a cloudy sky with no moon to guide them. Worried about their safety, Anett devises a clever and unusual plan for their safe passage to the harbor.
Hedy's Journey by
It is 1941. Hedy and her family are Jewish, and the Jew-hating Nazi party is rising. Hedy's family is no longer safe in their home in Hungary. They decide to flee to America, but because of their circumstances, sixteen-year-old Hedy must make her way through Europe alone. Will luck be with her? Will she be brave? Join Hedy on her journey-where she encounters good fortune and misfortune, a kind helper and cruel soldiers, a reunion and a tragedy-and discover how Hedy is both lucky and brave. Hedy's Journey adds an important voice to the canon of Holocaust stories, and her courage will make a lasting impact on young readers.
Ruth and the Night of Broken Glass by
In the late summer and early fall of 1938, ten-year-old Ruth Block, along with her father, mother, and best friend, Miriam, must navigate the increasing pressure placed on the Jewish population in Frankfurt, Germany. Ruth grows more worried by the day. Her father's stationery store is shut down; she and Miriam are belittled on the street; their school is closed. Then one night in November, the family's apartment is broken into. Ruth's father is dragged into the square and arrested, along with hundreds of other Jewish men. Ruth, her family, her friends, and her community struggle to survive the fiery night and the terrifying, uncertain future ahead of them. Featuring nonfiction support material, a glossary, and reader response questions, this Girls Survive story takes readers to Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, one of history's most important moments.
Don't Tell the Nazis by
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (author of Making Bombs for Hitler) crafts a story of ultimate compassion and sacrifice based on true events during WWII.The year is 1941. Krystia lives in a small Ukrainian village under the cruel -- sometimes violent -- occupation of the Soviets. So when the Nazis march into town to liberate them, many of Krystia's neighbors welcome the troops with celebrations, hoping for a better life.But conditions don't improve as expected. Krystia's friend Dolik and the other Jewish people in town warn that their new occupiers may only bring darker days.The worst begins to happen when the Nazis blame the Jews for murders they didn't commit. As the Nazis force Jews into a ghetto, Krystia does what she can to help Dolik and his family. But what they really need is a place to hide. Faced with unimaginable tyranny and cruelty, will Krystia risk everything to protect her friends and neighbors?
Hana's Suitcase by
In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan. Hana Brady was written on the outside. Children who saw the suitcase on display were full of questions and the director decided to find the answers.
Number the Stars by
The unforgettable Newbery Medal-winning novel from Lois Lowry. As the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen's family takes in Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family. Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war. A modern classic of historical fiction, Number the Stars has won generations of fans and continues to speak to today's readers. Jessica Grose wrote in a November 2022 New York Times essay entitled "This Perfect Mother-Daughter Read Holds a Powerful Lesson for Fighting Antisemitism": "Number the Stars is particularly relevant to our family, and to this moment." As School Library Journal put it: "Readers are taken to the very heart of Annemarie's experience, and, through her eyes, come to understand the true meaning of bravery."
Thank you to our partners for Holocaust Learn and Remember 2023
We invite you to visit their websites:
Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio
Jewish Federation of San Antonio
San Antonio Public Library Foundation
Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission
