| September 2, 2020 [St. Petersburg, FL] —The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) is pleased to announce three new exciting and innovative exhibitions coming soon. Dimensions in TestimonySMA cutting-edge new interactive exhibit, Dimensions in TestimonySM (DiT) from USC Shoah Foundation, will become part of The FHM’s permanent collection and on display as a permanent exhibition this fall, in large part thanks to a $100,000 commitment from Bank of America as a Founding Corporate Sponsor. Dimensions in TestimonySM is an initiative by USC Shoah Foundation to record and display testimony in a way that will preserve the dialogue between Holocaust Survivors and learners far into the future. Developed in 2010, Dimensions in Testimony combines ultra-high-definition filming and voice activation to allow a conversational and interactive experience between Holocaust Survivors and audiences. At its core, the Dimensions in TestimonySM program is another way to access and learn from Survivor testimony. The Florida Holocaust Museum is among only a dozen Holocaust museums in the world to house Dimensions in TestimonySM. The FHM exhibition will feature four local Survivors. They are the first in Florida to participate in the project. During April – May 2021, the award-winning curatorial and educational staff of The FHM, Interim Executive Director Erin Blankenship, and Director of Education and Research, Ursula Szczepinska, researched, captured, and preserved the testimonies of local Florida Survivors Mary Wygodski, Helen Kahan, Ed Herman, and Betty Grebenschikoff. Grebenschikoff recently garnered national attention when she was reunited with her childhood best friend and fellow Holocaust Survivor after 80 years (https://nbcnews.to/3ha3Xkx). Filming took place at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus with local talent operating the cameras. Wygodski, Kahan, Herman, and Grebenschikoff each spent a full week in the studio answering thousands of questions about their unique experiences. Since most living Holocaust Survivors are in their 80s or 90s, the participating Survivors recognized the opportunity that Dimensions in TestimonySM offered and adapted to the technology needed to participate and share their stories. One of the local Survivors, Helen Kahan, celebrated her 98th birthday during the filming. Dimension in TestimonySM will be permanently on display beginning in October. Pinchus Gutter, who was the first testimony ever recorded by USC Shoah for this project will be the first interactive Survivor biography featured. Pincus lived through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and survived the Majdanek death camp. Stitching History from the Holocaust In the winter of 1939, Paul Strnad wrote his cousin Alvin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Desperate to obtain an affidavit to escape the onslaught of Nazi Germany, Paul sent Alvin sketches of his wife Hedwig’s designs. Paul and Hedy hoped that these examples of her work would provide evidence of their financial independence. Despite Alvin’s best efforts, both Hedwig and her husband Paul were murdered in the Holocaust. All that remains of the story are this letter and Hedwig’s sketches. Stitching History from the Holocaust explores the life and work of Hedy Strnad before her murder. The main feature of this exhibit is the recreation of Hedy’s dresses from her sketches. It serves as an example of what happens when human suffering is ignored and is a testament to the incalculable loss of the Holocaust. Stitching History from the Holocaust is on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee and is sponsored locally by the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast. This project is also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts (Section 286.25, Florida Statutes). It will be on view: September 4, 2021 – January 2, 2022, in the Janet Kohn Gallery on the Second Floor. Reflections on Man’s Fate: Artwork by Judith Weinshall Liberman Reflections on Man’s Fate is an exhibition of artwork by artist Judith Weinshall Liberman. Drawn from works in the Museum’s permanent collection, the work focuses on the present state of mankind as well as the relentlessness and enormity of history’s darkest period.Born in Israel, Liberman came to the United States after completing high school. She has exhibited her work in one-person and group shows through the U.S. and abroad and her work can be found in many public and private collections throughout the world. Reflections on Man’s Fate is on view now through July 4, 2022, in the Herbert and Isabel Savel Teaching Gallery on the Third Floor. Please stay engaged with The FHM online through the Museum’s virtual tour, virtual resources, online curriculum, collections, Holocaust Survivor testimonies, and on its social media pages Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. About The Florida Holocaust MuseumOne of the largest Holocaust museums in the country, and one of three nationally accredited Holocaust museums, The Florida Holocaust Museum honors the memory of millions of men, women and children who suffered or died in the Holocaust. The FHM is dedicated to teaching members of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides. For additional information, please visit www.TheFHM.org About Dimensions in TestimonySMDimensions in TestimonySM is an initiative by USC Shoah Foundation to record and display testimony in a way that will preserve the dialogue between Holocaust survivors and learners far into the future. Collaborating within the project are Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, with technology by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, and concept by Conscience Display. Funding for New Dimensions in TestimonySM was provided in part by Pears Foundation, Louis. F. Smith, Melinda Goldrich, and Andrea Cayton/Goldrich Family Foundation in honor of Jona Goldrich, Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and Genesis Philanthropy Group (R.A.). Other partners include CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Photos: |
| Local Holocaust Survivor, Edward Herman, participates in Dimensions in TestimonySM taping. |
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| Stitching History from the Holocaust is on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee and is sponsored locally by the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It will be on view: September 4, 2021 – January 2, 2022 in the Janet Kohn Gallery on the Second Floor. |
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Anne Frank’s Amsterdam, 1988. Permanent Collection of The Florida Holocaust Museum, donated by Judith Weinshall Liberman A map of Amsterdam, the city where Anne Frank lived and hid before she was captured and transported to Auschwitz, is here superimposed upon images of her now-familiar photograph. The repeated images are an allusion to the picture-covered wall in her room, and the spider-web appearance of Amsterdam underscores her feeling of being trapped. |
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