Albertsons Library at Boise State is among 50 public and academic libraries in the country that will host “Americans and the Holocaust.” The traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association Public Programs Office will be open to the public on the first floor of the library from March 22 to April 26, 2023.
The exhibition examines Americans’ responses to refugees, war and genocide in the 1930s and ’40s. It challenges common assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews during the war. “Americans and the Holocaust” tells the stories of Americans who did take action — in some cases at great personal risk.
Organizers said they want the exhibition to “challenge people to not only ask ‘what would I have done?’ but also, ‘what will I do?’”
“I’m proud that Albertsons Library was selected to host the exhibit. This is a recognition of Boise State’s ability to facilitate important conversations on the exhibit’s themes with our students, campus and community,” said Gwyn Hervocon, a professor, librarian and archivist at Albertsons Library. “Dr. Tromp noted in her state of the university speech that the role of higher education is to work on ‘hard questions’ and that’s what the creators of this exhibit have challenged us with as well.”