2018 Fall Bearing Witness Magazine

CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT

EXHIBITS

Survivor Bill Morgan's Story Added to Dimensions in Testimony

In the Country of Numbers, where the men have no names In the Country of Numbers, where the men have no names , on view through May 2019, tells the story of 6,000 Jewish men, most from Berlin, who were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen following the November Pogrom Night known as Kristallnacht. November 9, 2018, marks the 80th anniversary of the Pogrom Night in 1938 when Nazis went through the streets of Germany and set synagogues on fire, smashed the window fronts of Jewish businesses, attacked Jewish people and vandalized their apartments. Well over 1,300 Jewish women and men were killed during the riots or as a direct consequence of them. Much less attention, however, is given to the over 27,000 Jewish men throughout Germany who were arrested after the riots and taken to concentration camps. These mass arrests were intended to dramatically escalate pressure on German Jews to leave the country. The Gestapo targeted young and middle-aged Jewish men, and once in the camp, they were subjected to much harsher treatment and singled out for SS terror and abuse. Over 80 perished in Sachsenhausen, the rest were released by the spring of 1939 on condition they would leave Germany immediately.

USC Shoah Foundation continues to develop Dimensions in Testimony (DiT), a collection of interactive biographies that enable people to have a conversation with pre-recorded video images of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide. Recently added to the collection is Houston area Survivor William “Bill” Morgan.

Recorded in 2017, Bill Morgan answered hundreds of questions regarding his experience during the Holocaust. Bill Morgan was born in Czerniejów, Poland to very pious parents who struggled to put food on the table for their seven children. When Soviet troops arrived in Czerniejów in September 1939, most Jews looked at the Soviets as the lesser of two evils. Less than two years later Germany invaded, confirming their worst fears. “The first week I remember they drowned a religious Jew, cut his beard and drowned him, threw him in the water,” recalled Bill. Together with hundreds of other Jews, the family was forced into the ghetto of nearby Stanisławów. One day, the Germans ordered Bill to dig holes in the cemetery. Then they brought in a truckload of Jews, shot them and let them fall into the pits. Horrified, Bill returned to his family and told them he was going to flee. Bill spent the rest of the war posing as a Polish farm worker and moving from town to town. Thoughts of his family tormented him. After the war, he spent years searching for his family only to find that no one had survived. Bill Morgan’s interactive testimony will be available for viewing at Holocaust Museum Houston in late 2018.

"Photo-series: Professor Landra visits Sachsenhausen" December 19, 1938 Archive Social Democracy, Friedrich Ebert Foundation

Bill and Shirley Morgan with the USC Shoah Foundation Team

The Faces of Syrian Refugees Exhibition Included Stories of Houston Holocaust Survivors During the atrocities of WWII, Holocaust survivors were uprooted from their homelands and resettled in other countries. More than one half of all European Jews perished by the end of WWII; many who survived picked up the pieces of their shattered lives and moved forward. A special feature was included in The Faces of Syrian Refugees exhibition, depicting the images and stories of several local Holocaust survivors upon their arrival in Houston prior to 1955 and how they worked hard to achieve the American dream. Survivors and descendants took photos in the exhibition with their loved ones. 1. Edith Mincberg with the panel of her husband, Josef Mincberg, z”l 2. Dr. Anna Steinberger with the panel of herself and husband Dr. Emil Steinberger, z”l 3. Gail Klein with the panel of her mother, Renee Danziger, z”l 4. Kendall Kalmans with the panel of her great-grandmother, Naomi Warren, z”l

Call for Artifacts

Sunday, February 17, 2019 Noon – 5:00 PM 9220 Kirby Drive, Suite 100, Houston, 77054 Meet with one of the Museum's curators to discuss a possible artifact donation. Many of us have saved documents, photographs or personal items from the Holocaust era somewhere in our homes. Some may be stashed in a drawer or an old box in the attic or even hidden away in a closet. Each item embodies a life story that remains to be told. As time passes, these items are at risk of irreparable damage. Before they are lost forever, Holocaust Museum Houston calls on the public to donate these precious items so that they will be preserved for generations to come. We seek materials reflecting two theme areas; Jewish life before, during and after WWII and the Holocaust and its aftermath.

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Hand-Embroidered Silk Baby Dress, Netherlands, 1942 Donated by Chaja Verveer

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