what you do matters 2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT 2 ANNUAL REPORT 2008–09 WHAT YOU DO MATTERS 3 FRONT COVER ESTELLE LAUGHLIN HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR AND MUSEUM VOLUNTEER what they do Dear friends—this past November, however impressive our far-reaching 40-foot-high portraits of Estelle impact, we must constantly challenge Laughlin and other Museum survivor ourselves to do more. In a century volunteers were projected one by one already threatened by an alarming onto the exterior of our building. rise in hatred and antisemitism as The symbolism was stunning as each well as genocide, there are simply illuminated the night. Estelle had just no time-outs. turned ten when Germany invaded Our global institution is on the Poland. Over the next four years, she front lines confronting these issues managed to survive the Warsaw ghetto, thanks to your generosity and an the Majdanek death camp, and two extraordinary constellation of other slave labor camps. With dreams still partners equally passionate in our haunted by these memories, Estelle cause. On the pages that follow you shares her story with audiences here will meet some of them. While we and across the country in order to, as cannot eradicate hatred and evil, she says, “keep truth alive and visible.” together we remain unrelenting in In telling their stories, Holocaust our commitment to remember and to survivors put the horror of the genocide teach the lessons of the Holocaust— of Europe’s Jews into a profoundly not just to impart the truth of history’s personal context. They move us beyond greatest crime but to ignite the personal the monolithic event and unfathomable sense of responsibility that stands at numbers to the anguish of each the heart of strong, just societies. That individual, and then to the sobering is what the Holocaust teaches with realization that millions more were such moral clarity. That is the essence complicit—whether through their of our work together. And at this actions or sheer indifference. That is critical moment, our efforts could the truth of the Holocaust: it was not not be more urgently needed. Portraits of the Museum’s survivor inevitable, nor is the history being volunteers that were projected on written today. What we each do matters. 01 What they do the walls of our building during Every time these survivors speak, FotoWeek DC. 02 Rescuing the evidence and making truth accessible they powerfully demonstrate the responsibility each individual must Fred S. Zeidman, Chairman 07 Shaping the relevance of Holocaust studies in the context of today’s issues assume in creating a more just and humane world. And it begins with 08 Empowering people worldwide to confront hatred, antisemitism, and injustice the actions we take each day. 13 Creating a blueprint to prevent genocide and mass atrocities Thanks to your extraordinary personal commitment, especially 15 Leading the movement to stop genocide today during these challenging economic Joel M. Geiderman, Vice Chairman times, the Museum engaged millions 16 Far-reaching global impact of people worldwide last year with 18 Days of Remembrance 2009 this truth. No other institution is bringing the lessons of the Holocaust 22 Regional partners to so many people in so many languages and so many places. But Sara J. Bloomfield, Director 24 International Travel Program 26 Our donors 42 Financial Statement 43 United States Holocaust Memorial Council 4 ANNUAL REPORT 2008–09 Piotr is ensuring that Auschwitz remains relevant to new generations Preserving Auschwitz is not only preserving the past, it is preserving the future. With this trust placed in us, each day we must ask ourselves what more can we do.” The trust factor put 36-year-old the most powerful way to counter Dr. Piotr Cywin´ski on a journey nine Holocaust denial. But what we do years ago that he could not have with this evidence will determine the imagined when survivors invited him continuing relevance of the Holocaust to become the youngest member on for future generations. “This is the the International Auschwitz Council. challenge that keeps me awake at It was, as Piotr says, “putting me in night,” says Piotr. “Memory is the first “ the center of a 20th-century history step, but alone it cannot guarantee that I had wanted to escape.” Today, the future.” some two years after becoming the While the Museum works with director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau many institutions worldwide, our State Museum, Piotr is still over- partnership with Auschwitz-Birkenau whelmed that survivors trusted him is unique. Our Permanent Exhibition with the most critical experience in would not be possible without the their life. artifacts on loan from Auschwitz, and The defining symbol of the we provide conservation guidance Holocaust in a rapidly changing that helps this site preserve its massive Europe, Auschwitz is even more collections. Today, our colleagues important today than it was 20 or at Auschwitz are looking to us for 30 years ago. A 2008 Pew Research our expertise in creating exhibitions survey reports that growing numbers that engage diverse audiences in several major European nations in transformative experiences— say they have unfavorable opinions especially young people increasingly DR. PIOTR CYWIŃSKI of Jews. More alarming is that distanced from this history. Under dIRECTOR OF AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU STATE MUSEUM these percentages are higher than Piotr’s leadership, annual visitation in comparable Pew surveys taken to Auschwitz now exceeds one Piotr in the Permanent Exhibition, every year since 2004. As European million, with people coming from which displays many artifacts from the demographics change, will future all over Europe and as far away as Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. generations see Auschwitz as China. “Now we are at a very special RESCUING THE EVIDENCE AND MAKING TRUTH ACCESSIBLE In a project that only our part of their history and identity? moment,” says Piotr. “This place Preserving Auschwitz and other sites must speak more to the imagination WHAT Museum could have undertaken—and with the assistance of hundreds of researchers as well as documentary evidence of of the new generations so that they worldwide—the first of seven volumes of the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CAMPS AND GHETTOS, 1933–1945 was history’s greatest crime is of utmost understand the significance of this WE DID published in early 2009. When completed, this milestone in Holocaust scholarship will inform urgency—material evidence is event and their responsibility for the study for generations to come, providing key details, maps, and photographs for a staggering critical to securing memory and is future of their societies, of humanity.” THIS 20,000 sites across Europe. Dramatically expanding our understanding of the scope and nature of the Nazi system, the ENCYCLOPEDIA will serve as a vital resource and a powerful YEAR reservoir of truth. To learn more, please visit www.ushmm.org/research/center/encyclopedia. WHAT YOU DO MATTERS 3 ELI ROSENBAUM is pursuing perpetrators DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Eli OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS and justice with the Museum s help Eli displays one of the crucial pieces of ’ evidence in the successful prosecution of Nazi war criminal Alexandras Lileikis. When one tries to imagine the terror of the mother and the little girl facing a pit filled with thousands of bodies, then one tries hard not to imagine.” The 1941 murder of six-year-old priority access to its archive—the Fruma Kaplan and her mother, Gita, world’s most comprehensive collection at the killing pits outside of Vilna of Holocaust evidence—and Museum (Vilnius) is the case that touches Eli historians provide expert witness Rosenbaum like no other. No prewar testimony in prosecutions. In December, photos or documents about them have OSI reciprocated, donating copies of ever been found. “But for the records its records to the Museum’s archive. we found and used in court, their Created over decades of investigating story, like that of so many other victims, and prosecuting alleged perpetrators would not be known,” says Eli. What of Nazi crimes who immigrated to the “ we do know is that they escaped United States, the records represent from the Vilna ghetto and hid in the the largest body of English-language, countryside before being sent to their primary source material relating to deaths by former Lithuanian police the prosecution of Nazi criminals and chief Alexandras Lileikis. Eli and the include documents from more than Office of Special Investigations (OSI) one hundred successful prosecutions, team first got the lead in 1982 that such as the Lileikis case. “The Museum Lileikis was living in Massachusetts. is the premier destination for Holocaust It took a decade before investigators scholars and researchers in the world,” had enough evidence to prosecute, he explains. “Each piece of paper and including the death warrants for testimony is part of an overall effort Fruma and her mother that Lileikis to pursue, at a minimum, full historical had signed. Stripped of his U.S. truth . and in our work, also law citizenship, he stood trial in Lithuania. enforcement, truth, and justice.” For Eli, the amount of time it takes The passion that has driven Eli’s every to bring perpetrators to justice is waking moment for 25 years parallels immaterial. “The passage of time has the Museum’s own commitment with in no way lessened the gravity of the its world-class team of professionals offenses or the culpability of those relentlessly searching for truth in more who committed them,” he stresses. than 40 countries on six continents. RESCUING THE EVIDENCE AND MAKING TRUTH ACCESSIBLE The Museum’s years-long leadership “Our partnership with the Museum This expensive, methodical, and time- WHAT in opening the largest closed Holocaust archive in the world—the International Tracing Service (ITS) is enormously important to efforts to consuming work to collect evidence in Bad Arolsen, Germany—finally paid off in 2008.