JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
Whitwell’s Orena Humphreys Public Library has recently become the host of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center’s Travelling Trunk Exhibit.
A first in the library’s history, the mobile exhibit made its way into the Marion County area to allow residents of different ages the chance to dive deep into the history of the Holocaust in a brand new way. The exhibit dedicates to providing visitors an in-depth look at the lives of several survivors during one of history’s most tragic events. For participants, several Virtual Reality (VR) headsets were provided for them to wear. When doing so, they are left immediately thrusted into the shoes of the survivors which stories foretold of both tragedy and resilience during one of humanity’s darkest chapters.
Cathy Black, library director for the Orena Humphreys Public Library, explained the idea to bring the exhibit to the local library was made by town mayor Sandra Crabtree. Over a year ago, during her time as Executive Director of the Marion County Library Board, Crabtree stumbled upon the exhibit and quickly began work on making the arrangements to have it hosted in the community’s library. Black noted how because of Whitwell being home to the famed Paper Clips Program and Children’s Holocaust Memorial, Crabtree felt the Travelling Trunk Exhibit would be a temporary yet fitting addition to the community to learn more about the Holocaust.
“We have the Children’s Holocaust Memorial here in Whitwell, and she just thought it would go along well with that,” explained Black.
Up to five videos telling the stories of different survivors were presented via a tablet that all VR headsets wirelessly connected to when the videos would play. Among one of the videos presented focused on Marion Deichmann, a Jewish woman who was born in Karlsruhe, Germany in November of 1932, months prior to Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of the nation in 1933. After being separated from her father whilst he fled Europe during the Nazi’s occupation of Germany in 1934, Marion and her mother, Alice, would manage to sneak across the border into France, where they would move in with Alice’s mother in Paris. However, during mass arrests of Jews in July of 1942 within the city, an event known as the Vel’ d’Hiv, two officers arrested Alice and eventually sent her to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was never seen again since.
Other videos included the stories of George Brent and Rodi Glass, whose tales told of their own experiences when living through and grappling with the tragedies that unfolded before them at young ages. Cathy stated while the Travelling Trunk Exhibit’s possible return in the future is up in the air, her and other members of the library are already planning ahead to potentially host a similar exhibit next year.