Americans and the Holocaust

Traveling Exhibit Comes to the Meredith Public Library
July 29-September 4, 2025

The traveling exhibition Americans and the Holocaust will be hosted at the library as part of its second national tour. The exhibition is made possible through the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association. The exhibition visited 50 libraries from 2021 to 2023 during its first tour and is visiting an additional 50 libraries from 2024 to 2026.

The 1,100-square-foot exhibition is based on the original display that opened in April 2018 at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibition tells the stories of Americans who acted in response to Nazism, and presents research and public opinions from the era regarding the various societal factors that influenced Americans understanding and response to the threats. The exhibition challenges visitors to ask, “What would I have done?” as well as “What will I do?”

Library Programs in Support of the Exhibition

Tuesday, July 29. Exhibit opens. We will be showing The U.S. and the Holocaust, a film by Ken Burns, all day in the Function Room. A copy of the series will also be available for check-out.

Thursday, July 31 at noon. Brown Bag Book Discussion. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer to their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable.

Saturdays at 11 AM, Aug. 2, 9 & 16. Holocaust Film Series. Following each film there will be a discussion. We are screening these films with a goal to provide audiences with greater insight into the social, political, and cultural contexts of the Holocaust and antisemitism by connecting film narratives to historical events. August 2 - The Great Dictator, August 9 - Casablanca, August 16 - Gentleman's Agreement.

Thursday, August 5, 6:30 PM. Stark Decency. Sponsored by the NH Humanities. During World War II, 300 German prisoners of war were held at Camp Stark near the village of Stark in New Hampshire's North Country. Allen Koop reveals the history of this camp, which tells us much about our country's war experience and about our state

Monday, August 11, 6:00 PM. Kati Preston, Holocaust Survivor at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse. Kati's talk will invite her audience to take a journey through history as she recounts the details of her early childhood in Nazi-occupied Hungary. 28 members of Kati’s family perished, including her beloved father. Kati is with us today due to the kind and courageous acts of one single person during the final stages of World War II.

Thursday, August 14, 6:30 PM. Ruth and Henry Yelgin: Holocaust Survivors and Resistance Fighters. Ruth and Henry Yelgin survived the Nazis as members of a partisan resistance group in the Nacha Forest near Eishyshok, Lithuania. After being liberated by the Soviet Army, they emigrated to the U.S. in 1949, rebuilt their lives, and raised two children in the Boston area. Their son, Louis Yelgin will share their story of survival.

Tuesday, August 19, 6:30 PM. Non-Fiction Book Group Discusses The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos by Judith Batalion. Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis.

Thursday, August 21, 6:30 PM. Norman Rockwell and World War II. Sponsored by the NH Humanities. This program explores how Norman Rockwell's work departs from earlier artistic interpretations of American conflicts and considers how and why he chose specific wartime themes to present to the millions of readers of the Saturday Evening Post.

Thursday, August 28, 6:30 PM. Powerhouse Theatre Presents: Readings from The Diary of Anne Frank. The theater will be putting on the play October 10-12, but get a sneak-peak tonight! Learn more about the full production.