A Holocaust exhibit has been set up in the Sims Memorial Library on the first floor. The exhibit will be up from April 7 through April 19 and is open to the public. It is courtesy of a special topics English class taught by Dr. Suzanne Calloway. Calloway herself has been to the Anne Frank house in New Amsterdam, the Dachau Concentration Camp in a trip to Germany and to a 14 day summer seminar on Holocaust education at the Memorial Library in New York City in 2008.

“I had never taught it before I took that seminar,” said Calloway. “It’s such a vast topic, I was hesitant to teach it.” Since the seminar, she has taught a three-week unit on the subject in her English 102 classes; however, this is the first time she has taught a class solely on the Holocaust.

The exhibit was made possible through a $1,000 grant from the NYC Memorial Library. Auschwitz survivor Olga Lengyel, who dedicated her life and life savings to preserve the memory of those who died in the Holocaust, set up the library trust fund, as well as the Memorial Library itself. Lengyel is also featured in the exhibit. Students have been asked to sign in at a table before entering the exhibit so that the Sims Memorial Library might see the success or lack thereof of the project.

The exhibit itself is made up of six end-of-the-semester group projects done by students. The entire project was done over the course of two weeks, and each group had a theme. Some of these themes were “firsthand perspectives,” “Holocaust denial” and “student and victim poetry and writing.” Students and Calloway also put up “identity boxes” made at the beginning of the semester in order to symbolize how the identities of Holocaust victims were taken away and replaced by a number. Students also made identity boxes for victims as well as groups that fell victim to the Holocaust. The exhibit also features a collage of information on Louisiana and it’s current involvement in teaching about the Holocaust. Calloway stated that Louisiana is one of six states that is currently not mandated by law to teach about the Holocaust.

“There’s a lot of interest in the Holocaust,” said Calloway, “Especially with issues in diversity, not only in the U.S., but internationally.”

On Wednesday, April 13, there will also be a reception and reading on the third floor of the library where students will read excerpts from books and memoirs about the Holocaust, as well as their original compositions. The event will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. and refreshments will be served.

The class has also set up a donation box for shoes for children and youth in Africa.

“I think it’s really informative,” said sophomore Zubin Rajbhandari, who really enjoyed the exhibit.  “It gives us firsthand information about what really happened in the war. We can see what was happening in their personal lives when the world was concerned with nations fighting nations.”