EIU Booth Library

Courage to Remember Exhibit

Posted on January 10th, 2025

EIU Recognizes International Holocaust Remembrance Day with Traveling Exhibit
Courage to Remember, a traveling exhibit about the Holocaust, will be displayed at Eastern Illinois University in Booth Library from January 27, 2025, to January 31, 2025. January 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The exhibit will open that day at noon with a public reception, including a welcome from Jay Gatrell, EIU President.

Created by the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance, the exhibit features large illustrated panels with historical photos, maps, and first-person accounts. It presents a chronological journey through the events of the Holocaust, exploring how prejudice and discrimination escalated into violence and genocide.

“We are very excited that Eastern Illinois University is hosting this exhibit,” said Dr. Brian Kahn, a longtime member and previous chair of the Holocaust Education Center of the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation, the exhibit’s sponsor. “Holocaust survivor Dr. William Gingold brought this exhibit to our area, and it is an excellent educational tool for teaching about the Holocaust,” he added.

Rebecca Lawson, EIU alumna and local educator, echoed this sentiment: “Getting to a major Holocaust museum is not easy for most people in our area, and this exhibit will give people a similar experience on a smaller scale without having to travel very far.”

International Holocaust Remembrance Day honors the memory of Holocaust victims. EIU’s hosting of Courage to Remember serves as an opportunity to foster historical awareness, promote critical reflection on the consequences of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance, and to reaffirm its commitment to human rights and the university’s mission to prepare students as informed and empathetic global citizens.

Courage to Remember will be displayed in the West Reading Room of Booth Library, 600 Lincoln Ave., Charleston, Illinois. The exhibit is free and open to the public from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.