Education
Permanent Exhibition: A Reason to Remember
This permanent teaching exhibition, "A Reason to Remember: Roth, Germany 1933-1942," is based on the personal stories of five Jewish families who lived in the small village of Roth, Germany between 1933 and 1942. Their stories are linked to the political and historical events of the Holocaust. With powerful displays of images, narrative, survivors' voices, and artifacts, these five families’ stories tell the larger history of the Holocaust and why we should remember it today.
The demise of this tiny Jewish community is chronicled in detail, using primary source materials such as photographs, documents, and artifacts, as well as eyewitness testimonies. The exhibit illustrates how the relations between these families and their neighbors were systematically dismantled.
Visitors are engaged in a personal, intimate, and emotional way with the lives of Roth’s former Jewish residents and become well acquainted with the men, women, and children of the village. Visitors are also challenged by what they see in this exhibit to think critically about the choices they make when they are called upon to respond to prejudice or any other type of injustice.
The exhibit is open to UMass students and the general public during regularly scheduled hours. School groups are also welcome to visit and tour with a docent, by previously scheduled appointment. Please contact us for information about scheduling tours and programs based on the permanent exhibition for high school and middle school students. Since the opening in April 2011, the Institute's permanent teaching exhibition has been visited by over 6,000 middle school, high school, and college students from 30 different schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
School and Group Visits
Since the opening in April 2011, the Institute's permanent teaching exhibition has been visited by over 6,000 middle school, high school, and college students from 30 different schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut, guided by trained docents from the Pioneer Valley.
Traveling Exhibit
This free-standing traveling exhibit is based on the Institute’s permanent exhibition, “A Reason to Remember: Roth, Germany 1933-1942,” which tells the stories of five Jewish families who lived in a rural German village under Nazi rule, using original photos, documents, and artifacts. This traveling exhibit is available to off-campus borrowing institutions for a fee of $500. For questions, please email ihgms@umass.edu.
Virtual Lecture Archive
The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at UMass Amherst hosts a variety of events, most of which are open to the public. Viewers are able to join these events in real time and are also able to later view the recordings of these events at their own convenience via our YouTube Channel. Visit our YouTube Channel to learn more.
Library
The 5,000 volume library on Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies is currently being catalogued and will soon be available for research visits. This library has been established with generous founding gifts from Schoen Booksellers, Estate of Gaston Schmir, Herbert and Elsa Roth, and James Young.
Give
Friends of The Institute,
The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst houses both research facilities and a permanent teaching exhibition on the Holocaust. In the Institute's first year, more than 1,500 middle- and high school-students toured our permanent exhibition, "A Reason to Remember," guided by local survivor-docents. Hundreds of university students and faculty have also viewed the exhibition and attended numerous lectures, public events, and receptions on Holocaust, genocide, and memory related themes.
The Institute relies on the generosity and support of a wide network of donors and supporters for its programs, collections, and events, and to keep the exhibition doors open for students and the public. Generous gifts from our founding donors have made it possible to bring and then open our permanent teaching exhibition, but we continue to rely on the gifts of community members, donors, alumni, and professionals to sustain the activities and mission of the Institute. Contributing Friends of the Institute will be recognized and thanked for their support with an annual Newsletter, invitations to special events, announcements, and public and private receptions.
Give to the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies
Give to the Professor Arnold Friedmann Endowment