A traveling exhibition called “Americans and the Holocaust” will arrive at the library on May 12 and will remain through June 21.

The Marshalltown library will be the only location in Iowa to host the exhibition.

Library director Sarah Rosenblum said they have received interest from other places in Iowa, such as the colleges and universities. She said they would like to travel to Marshalltown to view the exhibit.

The focus of the exhibition will be on the response of America to the persecution and murder of six million Jews by Nazis during World War II. The myth that the United States was indifferent or knew little of what was happening will be dispelled. Stories are told of people who acted against Nazism.

US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Refugees crowd outside the US consulate in Marseilles, France, ca. 1940.

Rosenblum said the exhibit will feature eight 10-foot panels.

Documentary presentation

“It is quite large and we will have it situated down in the library,” she said. “We will have a number of programs that go with it including Steven Pressman and he did this documentary on HBO.”

The documentary was called “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus,” and it was shown on HBO in 2013. It tells the story of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus from Philadelphia who traveled to Germany in 1939. They saved 50 Jewish children — between the ages of 5 and 14 — from the Holocaust by finding them homes in Philadelphia.

Pressman was married to the granddaughter of the Kraus’ and will be in Marshalltown on May 15.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The exhibit will be set up on pop-up displays.

“He’s going to come here and then we’re going to show the documentary at the Orpheum,” Rosenblum said.

In addition to the Pressman presentation, Rosenblum said other programs will be provided during the time the Holocaust exhibit is at the library, including some involving Iowa. She said aviator Charles Lindbergh gave a speech in Des Moines.

“He was a real isolationist,” Rosenblum said.

She also said there was a post mistress in Eagle Grove who connected with a man trying to flee Austria.

“She decided she would help him,” Rosenblum said. “So for people to come to America in the ’30s, you had to have a connection, a sponsor, a family member. She raised $400 which doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s like $5,000 today and was trying to bring this man over and he was murdered by the Nazis. So, we’re going to hopefully talk about that.”

She also said a little girl in Iowa was also a pen pal with Anne Frank — the teenage Jewish girl who lived in Germany during World War II and was killed in the Holocaust. She wrote a diary about her experience of hiding from the Nazis. The diary was published in to a book — “The Diary of a Young Girl” — three years after her death in 1944.

“We’re going to talk about that,” Rosenblum said. “We have a series of things and are sketching out what we are going to do.”

Current events and history

She said the library will tie the entire exhibit to what is happening in America today with people fleeing their countries and seeking better lives on United States soil.

“What’s changed?” Rosenblum asked. “We’re very proud and honored to bring this to the library and we are hoping it will spark good conversations.”

To make a firmer connection to current events, she said some refugees will speak about why they came to America.

With the rise of anti-Semitism, Rosenblum said security has been discussed in connection to the exhibit.

“I don’t think here you see it, but you certainly see it in the north east,” she said.

Rosenblum said 1,879 acts of anti-Semitism were recorded in 2017.

“We actually had a session with the security people from the Holocaust Museum,” she said. “We certainly are aware as we publicize this we may draw out somebody that is not happy with this. We are working with the police department here and Chief Tupper.”