World War II museum remembers the Holocaust
Jewish men and boys from Subcarpathian Rus await selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944. [ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem ]
German prisoners of war from a nearby internment camp are forced to exhume bodies from a mass grave found near the town of Nammering in May 1945. [ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park ]
The Camp Gordon Johnston World War II Museum in Carrabelle is presenting an exhibit in April to remember the Holocaust, Hitler’s program to commit genocide against Europe’s Jews and all those he deemed unworthy.
This exhibit will be on display at the museum until Saturday, May 3. The museum is open every Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. There is no charge for admission, but donations are gladly accepted.
Beginning in 1933, the German government established prison, labor, concentration, and extermination camps throughout their territories, including in countries they occupied before and during the war. Groups arrested and detained included Jews, Roma, Communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and the disabled. Some 12 million people perished in the more than 44,000 facilities, ghettos and killing fields across Europe, including six million Jews.
“The museum acknowledges the need for all citizens to understand this dark period of history, what caused it, who perpetrated it, and how some resisted and fought their captors,” said archivist Lisa Keith-Lucas. “Eyewitnesses such as survivors and the soldiers that liberated these camps are aging and dying, but many have told their stories. Visitors are invited to come see this sobering exhibit, and help our society remember those that were victims of atrocity, prejudice, and hate.”
The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar and marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which started on April 19, 1943.
In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah, and it will be recognized beginning at sunset on the evening of Wednesday, April 23 through Thursday, April 24.
The museum is located directly across from Carrabelle Public Beach Park at 1873 Hwy 98 West. For more information, contact the museum at (850) 697-8575 or museum@campgordonjohnston.com. Funded in part by the Franklin County Tourist Development Council.
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Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
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