History that inspires

action

• Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.
• The Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center
• OMNIMAX® Theater showings of D-Day

Join us for a gallery talk with Holocaust survivor Monique Rothschild on December 14. Monique shares the story of her family’s daring escape from Nazi-held Europe. Monique’s parents, Ernest and Hilda, fled antisemitism in Germany in 1933. They met and fell in love in Paris. In 1939, Ernest was sent to the first of half a dozen work camps for enemy aliens. Monique was born in 1940 in Bellac near the last labor camp where Ernest was imprisoned.  Following a month of separation, Hilda was able to make the perilous trip across the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain, carrying Monique, to make departure on a ship for which she already had tickets for passage. Thanks to an unexpected travel delay of several weeks and assistance from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Ernest was able to reunite with Hilda and Monique in Seville. They reunited just in time to board one of the last ships, the SS Navemar, taking refugees to the United States and arrived just months before America entered WWII. The ship’s unimaginable conditions would later be described as a floating concentration camp. The family arrived in America in 1941, and rebuilt their lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Public Program with Dr. Jake Desai-Newsome 

Sunday, February 22 at 2 PM
Reakirt Auditorium 

Join us for a thought-provoking and informative multimedia presentation about the German LGBTQ+ community under Nazi rule. This presentation will untangle the complex motivations that convinced Nazi leaders that combating homosexuality was vital to the success of the Third Reich. The result was the destruction of the vibrant LGBTQ+ communities that had emerged during the Weimar years, and the targeting, torture, and murder of tens of thousands of gay Germans. And while the Holocaust ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945, gay survivors soon learned that the era of state sanctioned persecution was not over. The presentation is followed by Q&A and book signing with Dr. Jake Desai-Newsome. 

Dr. Jake Desai-Newsome (he/him) is an award-winning historian, educator, and advocate whose research and resources educate global audiences. By shining a light on the LGBTQ+ past, he seeks to guide learners through a study of history to develop an ethical sense of compassion a commitment to inclusive community building. His debut book, Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust traces the transformation of the pink triangle from a Nazi concentration camp badge into a global symbol of pride. 

Since earning his PhD in History in 2016, Jake continues to publish in academic journals as well as popular outlets like The Washington Post and is often invited as a guest on podcasts, such as Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. In addition to serving as an advisor on film projects, exhibits, and plays, Jake has been invited by the French, UK, and US governments to speak about the important lessons that LGBTQ+ history has for all of us today. He lives with his husband and son in San Diego. Jake founded the Pink Triangle Legacies Project in 2024. 

Public Program with Ariela Heilman, daughter of Anna Heilman 

Sunday, March 15 at 2PM
Reakirt Auditorium 

Join us for a moving conversation with Ariela Heilman, daughter of Auschwitz saboteur and resistance hero, Anna Heilman.  

Anna grew up in a culturally Jewish, though assimilated, home in Warsaw before her family was forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. As a teenager, Anna, and her sister Estusia, fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, Anna and Estusia were slave laborers in a munitions factory, which gave them the opportunity to take part in resistance efforts in the camp. 

They risked their lives to smuggle gunpowder to members of the Sonderkommando, which fueled the famous Sonderkommando Uprising in 1944. In the aftermath of the uprising, four female prisoners, Roza Robota, Ala Gertner, Regina Safirsztajn, and Estusia were betrayed, interrogated, tortured, and hanged. Days later in an effort to evade advancing Soviet troops, Anna and other Auschwitz prisoners were forced on a death march that would eventually take Anna to Ravensbruck, then to Neustadt-Glewe where she was liberated. Anna’s story was recorded from memory into diaries she wrote while in a displaced person’s camp in 1945. These diaries served as the basis for her memoir, “Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman,” which won the city of Ottawa Book Award in 2002. Anna settled in Israel, married, raised two daughters and moved to Canada, where she was employed as a social worker for the Children’s Aid Society in Ottawa. Anna passed away in 2011. 

The world remembers Roza Robota, but the roles of the other co-conspirators is a lesser known story. You can learn more about it in the exhibit Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.