HMH Bearing Witness - November 2016

EXHIB I TS + EVENTS

UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND EVENTS

Hélène Berr: A Young Girl in Occupied Paris Dir. Jérôme Prieur (USA, 2013, 65 min, Documentary, English version) Thursday, November 10, 2016, 7:00 p.m . In conjunction with HMH’s exhibit “Hélène Berr: A Stolen Life,” this film imparts further insight into the life of Hélène Berr, a brilliant, young Jewish student of literature at the Sorbonne University, who lived in Paris during the Nazi occupation. In her diary, from 1942 till 1944, Berr described the mounting horrors of the persecution of the Jews. She was arrested in 1944 with her parents and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She died in Bergen-Belsen, a few days before liberation. Her secret diary was kept in the family and not published until 2008. Utilizing previously unseen footage shot in occupied Paris, official archival images and family photographs including remarkable home movies, French director Jérôme Prieur offers a highly original and captivating adaptation of Hélène Berr’s journal. Free admission. Private members only reception at 6:30 pm. Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 6:30 p.m. Renowned psychiatrist, Joel Dimsdale, will shed new light on the psychology of the war criminals at Nuremberg. After an international war crimes trial in Nuremberg was convened, a psychiatrist, Douglas Kelley, and a psychologist, Gustave Gilbert, explored the psychology of the Nazi leaders, using extensive psychiatric interviews, IQ tests, and Rorschach inkblot tests. The findings were so disconcerting that portions of the data were hidden away for decades. The research became a topic of intense debates. Drawing on his decades of experience as a psychiatrist and the dramatic advances in psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience since Nuremberg, Joel E. Dimsdale reviews the findings and examines in detail four of the war criminals: Robert Ley, Hermann Göring, Julius Streicher, and Rudolf Hess. Joel E. Dimsdale is distinguished professor emeritus and research professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. Book signing after the lecture. Free admission and open to the public. Anatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals Joel Dimsdale, MD.

Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants and the California Farmworker Movement Dr. Lori Flores Thursday, February 16, 2017, 6:30 p.m. Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California’s Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire owing to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. Professor Flores will discuss how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez. She will also look closely at how different groups of Mexicans— U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented— confronted and interacted with one another during this period. Her book is an incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, and offers crucial insights for today’s ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy. Book signing after the lecture. Professor Lori Flores is the assistant professor in the Department of History at Stony Brook University. Annual Yom Hashoah Observance Venue: Congregation Beth Israel Sunday, April 23, 2017, 3:00 p.m. The annual community-wide Yom HaShoah Commemoration is a time to remember the six million Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust and to pay tribute to those who survived. For more information, please call 713-942-8000 ext.104 or register at: www.hmh.org/RegisterEvent.aspx Unless otherwise stated, admission is $8 for non-members, $5 for members, seniors and students.

Genocide: Man’s Inhumanity to Humankind ON VIEW THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2016 MINCBERG GALLERY This juried Texas contemporary art exhibition is the inspired creation of HMH’s changing exhibition committee. The committee members include Gus Kopriva, owner of the Redbud Gallery in Houston and juror/ curator Clint Willour, retired Curator for the Galveston Arts Center. Sixty-five selections representing 2D and 3D media, with the exception of film and video, are featured from the more than 600 submissions by Texas area artists, inspiring collaboration with the museum and further promoting the programs and activities of HMH. Genocide, in all its forms, continues to resonate and affect the human condition even in today’s world. Please visit HMH’s website for more information. Image: “Justice for Genocide” by artist Leslie M. Guzmán

Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964 ON VIEW DECEMBER 9, 2016 THROUGH MAY 14, 2017 CENTRAL GALLERY Curated by the Smithsonian’s SITES program, this traveling exhibition chronicles the history of the largest guest worker program in U.S. history. The bracero program brought millions of Mexican nationals north to work on short- term labor contracts across this country. The work was backbreaking and living conditions poor, but the program offered Mexican men economic opportunities and much-needed work. Their contributions to communities in Mexico and the U.S. have had a lasting impact on the political, economic, social, and cultural landscapes of both nations. By addressing an important but overlooked chapter in American history, Bittersweet Harvest, the Museum’s first Spanish/English exhibit, offers a timely exploration of an issue that remains relevant today. Photo by Leonard Nadel, 1956 Courtesy Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

A Celebration of Survival, by Artist Barbara Hines ON VIEW JANUARY 19 THROUGH MARCH 12, 2017 MINCBERG GALLERY Combining various mediums and technology, this artistic exhibition by Houston Artist Barbara Hines addresses the Holocaust and other genocides framed in a message of redemption and forgiveness. Inspiring visitors to focus on what “could be”, rather than the horrors of the past, the exhibition highlights rescuers and prominent Jewish thinkers. Oskar Schindler diaphanous silkscreen by Artist Barbara Hines

Memorial de la Shoah Paris Executive Director Jacques Fredj, The Honorable Sujiro Seam, Consul General of France in Houston, and HMH CEO Kelly J. Zúñiga at the opening of “Hélène Berr, A Stolen Life.”

Natasha Bleyzer, Julia Smilianska, Director of the Institute of Judaica in Kiev and curator of “Babi Yar: Faces and Fates, 75th Anniversary of the Tragedy,” in conjunction with SigmaBleyzer, Houston,/DAR Kiev, Ukraine, and HMH Chief Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Carol Manley at the exhibit’s opening.

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