"Bearing Witness: An Evening with Springfield's Holocaust Liberators," will be held Nov. 19, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History.
On Nov. 19, the Springfield Museums will host a teacher workshop, "Bearing Witness: An Evening with Springfield's Holocaust Liberators," from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History.
The stories of area Holocaust liberators to be featured include those of David S. Cohen, one of the Allied soldiers who liberated the Ohrdruf and Buchenwald Nazi concentration camps in Germany, as well as that of retired Westfield District Court Judge Sidney M. Cooley, who was a U.S. Army officer with the 63rd Infantry Division in Europe. Cooley helped help set up camp in Bayreuth, Germany, for survivors of the Nazi death camps, and also had the authority to take back from the Nazis property they had confiscated from Jews and others they deemed undesirable.
The late U.S. Army officer Irving Heymont, who, in 1945 commanded the largest camp in Europe for Jewish "displaced persons" in Landsberg, Germany, and the late Donald J. Gosselin, who fought in Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge, and was among the first of the Allies inside liberated Nazi death camps, will also be featured at the event.
The workshop will also include demonstrations from the Springfield Museums' outreach program titled "Us & Them: Discrimination during the Holocaust and Today," which examines Springfield's connections to the Holocaust, and how the Holocaust's legacy continues today. When the Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center closed in 2010, some of its material, specifically the panels and most of the artifacts from its permanent exhibit of area family stories, "A Living Memorial: Holocaust Survivor Families," were donated to the Springfield museums for future exhibition.
There will also be a special tour of the museum's exhibit, "One Hundred Years of Jewish Life in the Valley: From Shtetl to Suburb" with Guy McLain, museum director. The exhibit, sponsored by Temple Beth El, chronicles how Jewish immigrants first came to the region, many as a result of pogroms in Czarist Russia in the late 19th century.
All teachers who attend the workshop will be eligible to bring the "Us & Them" outreach program to their classroom free of charge, through the sponsorship of the Agawam-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation and St. Germain Investments.
Participating teachers from Massachusetts may earn PDPs by attending the workshop. The cost to attend is $5 per person, and includes refreshments. Registration is required; to register or for more information, call (413) 263-6800, ext. 322, or email to schooltour@springfieldmuseums.org.
The Springfield Museums are located at the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards Street in downtown Springfield. Free onsite parking is available.
Editor's note: The third book, "Our Stories: The Jews of Western Massachusetts," in The Republican's Heritage series will be available on Nov. 22 from the paper. There will be a book signing session on Dec. 8 from 10 to noon with a bagel and coffee reception, free to the public, at the Springfield Jewish Community Center, 1160 Dickinson St.