Sharing the Holocaust Memory Project

Thomas Kelly

My first post described the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s Educator Cohort Program and my motivations for participating in it. My second blog post was about the first program I learned to deliver on Jewish immigration to Baltimore. This blog post is about the second program I learned to deliver. The program explains the Holocaust Memory Project and the lives of two survivors who participated in it. My second post described the process of preparing for a program delivery. Since that process was almost exactly the same for this program I will not go over it again. In this post I seek to outline the content of the program. I will then explain the tone I was instructed to adopt when delivering this program. From there, I discuss what JMM calls “hierarchies of pain” and why we should avoid making them when approaching traumatic history.

The Holocaust Memory Project is a collaborative project between the Human Element Project and JMM. The Human Element Project is an organization which assists marginalized groups in telling their stories through art. The Human Element Project’s past projects include work with incarcerated people, Syrian refugees and children with special needs. The Holocaust Memory Project facilitated the creation of collages by 91 Maryland and D.C. Holocaust survivors. Through the collages, these survivors tell stories of their lives before, during and after the Holocaust. 

The program that I deliver introduces the students to the Holocaust Memory Project and shares the collages and survivor stories of two of the program's 91 participants. These two survivors are Herta Griffel Baitch and Jacques Karpick Fein. 

Herta immigrated alone from Austria to New York City in 1940 at the age of seven. Her immigration process was facilitated by the German- Jewish Children’s Aid Society, an organization which assisted the immigration of Jewish children from Nazi Germany when their parents were unable. Her parents were murdered in the Holocaust and she was raised by foster parents in Baltimore. 

Jacques and his sister were Polish Jews living just outside Paris during the Holocaust. They were able to survive with the assistance of the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). The OSE, translated as the Children's Aid Society, was an illegal organization in Nazi-occupied France. The organization hid Jewish children in plain sight by placing them in the care of non-Jewish often Catholic parents. At huge personal risk, these parents raised these children as their own children, giving them new non-Jewish identities to hide them from the Nazis. After the war, the OSE thought it important that Jewish children be raised by Jewish parents after the war. This would preserve their Jewish identity. Therefore, the OSE facilitated Jacques and his sister’s adoption by an American Jewish family. They both grew up in the United States. Their parents were murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. Jacques visited the Bocahuts, the family that shielded him from the Nazis, in the 1980s. 

Herta’s collage features several photos. One is of her parents wedding day before the Holocaust. Another is of a dress her mother made her as child before their seperation. Another is of some Shabbat candlesticks her mother mailed to relatives in England to give to Herta. Others are recent photos of family and friends she made in the United States. Her collage includes a list of other children saved by the German- Jewish Children’s Aid Society and a Jewish blessing which expresses gratitude for “being brought to this time.” The museum assumes that for Herta this message expresses gratitude for being able to see a time after the Holocaust.

Jacques’s collage also features several photographs. One is a family portrait of him and his sister with the family that raised them during the Holocaust, the Bocahuts. Another is a family portrait of Jacques with his biological parents before the Holocaust. Another is a recent photo with all his children and their spouses and their grandchildren. Finally, there is a receipt for Jacques passage to the U.S. after the war. There is other French documentation in the collage. 

Now I want to say something about the tone I was instructed to deliver the presentation in. When delivering Holocaust education there tends to be two tonal extremes. On the one hand, there tends to be a very melodramatic delivery. Here the seriousness of the topic is conveyed in a very heavy-handed manner. On the opposite extreme is an extremely flat delivery. Here it is as if the content has no more moral gravity than a math problem. As an alternative, JMM encourages Holocaust education to be delivered in a somber tone. This is a better alternative to the melodramatic delivery. It alerts students that this is a very serious topic that needs their empathetic focus without deliberately attempting to disturb them. The somber delivery is also a superior alternative to the cold flat delivery. The somber tone humanizes the victims, arousing appropriate levels of empathetic concern. I found instructions on tone of delivery really insightful. I will hold on to them throughout my career as an educator.

JMM also recommends that students and instructors avoid constructing “hierarchies of pain.” When we learn about people's experiences of suffering we tend to compare and contrast them with one another. We often rank those experiences as well. For instance we think person or group X had a better or worse experience than person or group Y. This is not in itself a bad thing. For instance, Jews faced persecution that many non-Jews did not face during the Holocaust. Also, people who were able to immigrate during the Third Reich often survived the Holocaust. Those unable to immigrate often did not. However, when we orient our discussions about who had it worse we end up creating an atmosphere where certain experiences feel dismissed because they “weren’t as bad” as another experience.

We should also try to avoid such hierarchies on a grander social and historical level. When learning about events such as the Holocaust students will definitely bring this new knowledge into comparison with other traumatic historical events they have studied. For instance, they might make comparisons with American slavery, colonization or the creation of empires. They will make comparisons between antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. This is great. Students should be making such connections and looking for similarities and differences between different topics. However, students should be careful when making grand historical analogies because it radically flattens the particularities of different historical events and different forms of injustice. They should also avoid trying to crown a winner for who experienced the most suffering. For instance it is not helpful to make arguments about whether slavery was worse or not as bad as the Holocaust or that anti-black racism is worse or not as bad as antisemitism. We get nothing from seeking a winner in who had it worse contest. What such discussions tend to do is alienate people as opposed to including them in a democratic, historically rigorous discussion based on empathy and respect for human dignity. Such discussion is a radically necessary precondition for overcoming degrading social conditions.

Exploring the Remnants of Howard County’s History

    My internship at Preservation Howard County can be broken down into two main portions. The first was the research part, gaining perspective on the origins and history of these sites and searching for their current status. The second part involved going to some of the sites to take pictures and see for myself the state of these properties, some of which have received more extensive preservation efforts than others. For this blog post, I will recap what I saw and learned throughout this voyage.

    The first site I visited was the former Columbia Exhibit Center at 10215 Wincopin Circle, right across from The Mall in Columbia. Located on Lake Kittamaqundi, the center was the first place many of the original Columbia residents got their first introduction to the plans of The Rouse Company. The original structure still stands, but it has since been utilized as a space for offices, businesses, and restaurants throughout the years. The parking lot was still full of cars, so it remains unabandoned for now.

    The next sites I visited were Mt. Ida, the old Ellicott City Jail, the ruins of Simpsonville Mill, Thomas Viaduct, and Rockburn Branch Park, which houses three historic structures. 

    Mt. Ida and the old Ellicott City Jail share a few similarities being located right next to each other, right off Main Street in Historic Ellicott City. They were both surrounded by construction equipment when I visited, and both are, as far as I know, to be reused for office space, although who knows how those plans will change.

    My journey then brought me to the ruins of Simpsonville Mill, fenced off along a path connected to the Robinson Nature Center, covered in plants right underneath a bridge. It was clear how much the mill had deteriorated as nature reclaimed the area and the site sat off the Middle Patuxent River. My next stop, Thomas Viaduct, is a very different story being located within Patapsco Valley State Park, and still carrying trains across the Patapsco River.

    Rockburn Branch Park is home to three sites: Clover Hill, McKenzie Bank Barn, and Pfeiffer’s Corner Schoolhouse. Clover Hill was originally located in the area, but the McKenzie Bank Barn and Pfieffer’s Corner Schoolhouse were relocated to the park. Both Clover Hill and McKenzie Bank Barn are located right next to each other, albeit without any signage identifying the structures. There was once a plan to turn Clover Hill into a restaurant, however, this never came to fruition and the site continues to sit and deteriorate. The schoolhouse stands out from the other two sites as it was restored when relocated in 2003.

    One of the most memorable parts of my journey through Howard County's historic sites was the opportunity to visit Blandair, a historic manor nestled in the woods off Route 175 in Columbia. The original property for the manor has been essentially split in half with one side now being Blandair Regional Park. However, nestled away on the other side of Route 175, locked behind a gate, a gravel path leads to the manor and its outbuildings, including slave quarters. The site is currently under the purview of the Historic and Cultural Resources Section of the Howard County Department of Recreation & Parks, placing much-needed attention back onto the site which had been left to sit, locked away from the world.

An Introduction to Preservation in Howard County

    My name is Annyah St. Louis and throughout the summer of 2024, I was an intern for Preservation Howard County (PHC), a small nonprofit organization that, as its name suggests., works toward preserving historical sites across Howard County. Alongside preservation efforts, the organization also emphasizes raising public awareness of the historical sites that still remain in the county. Over the two decades since its inception, PHC has been involved in projects across Howard County, fighting for historic sites via methods such as grants and public awareness campaigns such as tours and their Top Ten list.

    Since its founding in June 2000, Preservation Howard County had a tradition of publishing a list of the top ten endangered/threatened historical sites, according to their criteria. Before 2020 and the major events of that year, PHC’s list had been regularly published in newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun and Howard County Times, further spreading information about these sites to the public. However, the pandemic halted much of that with the last of the lists being made in 2019. It wasn’t until the spring of 2024 that the group began to search for an intern to provide updates on previous historical sites and some new sites that had come under their radar. That’s where I come in!

    The initial pitch of the internship involved updating the status of the past endangered/threatened historic properties/structures, drawing from historical and present-day sources. The nature of the project itself was to take form throughout the summer, depending on the resources and information available about each site. However, at its core, this was an independent project geared toward researching historical sites and the differing levels of preservation efforts around Howard County, which I found quite interesting. I recently moved to the Howard County area in the fall of 2023 so this internship felt like a perfect way for me to learn about both preservation firsthand and the area I now call home (one of the sites on my list is less than ten minutes away). 

    The first third of my internship was mainly delving into the past lists from PHC, consolidating them into a document that made it easier for me to refer to the sites and the respective years they were on the list. This was also to familiarize myself with the lists in addition to the sites themselves. I received a file box filled with various resources, including a large binder scrapbook, two folders with past Top Ten materials, a copy of the 2002 Top Ten list, and two other binders with miscellaneous information related to Howard County and Maryland preservation work.

    In going through these materials, I realized that a few of the sites on these lists had been mainstays for years with four remaining from 2014 to 2019, the last list available. After consulting with a board member, who provided me with all these materials, I drew up a list that included these sites, the other 2019 sites, and two new sites in which PHC was interested. From here, I launched into consulting online resources alongside materials from the Howard County Historical Society in the Miller Library Branch of the Howard County Library System.

JMM Internship Post #2

Thomas Kelly

In my first blog post I discussed the overall nature of the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s
Educator Cohort. I explained what attracted me to the program and what I hoped to learn from
the experience. 

In this post I would like to dig deeper into my primary responsibility as a member of the
cohort, the online delivery of JMM’s programs to elementary, middle and high school students. I
particularly wish to explain the content of one of these pre-existing programs, how I mastered the
material, practiced for the presentation, and what the delivery experience itself was like.

The presentation I wish to discuss is titled “Immigration to Baltimore.” This program is
designed to last 30 to 45 minutes. The program, like all the other programs, is intended to be
interactive. The presenter consistently pauses to ask the students questions. These questions are
intended not so much to see what facts students already know or if they are understanding what
has already been presented. The intent of these questions is to prime the students for the next
section of the program. For instance, I ask the students “what are some reasons a person might
immigrate from one country to another?” This question pushes the students to think about the
dynamics of immigration. If effective, the question will arouse student empathy and curiosity
about the immigration experience. The interactive component is extremely important to the
museum. It keeps students engaged with the material, giving them space to creatively think
through the topic on their own. If we are on a tight time budget, we prefer to forfeit material
rather than student engagement.

Although titled “Immigration to Baltimore,” the presentation is primarily about Central
and Eastern European Jewish immigration to Baltimore in the late 19th and early twentieth
centuries. The program begins with what motivates a person to leave one country for another.
The United States generally upholds a very triumphant narrative regarding of immigration to
America.This narrative emphasizes what makes America an attractive destination for
immigrants. However JMM”s presentation emphasizes the social dynamics that may
impersonally compel immigrants to leave the countries of their birth. Additionally the program
emphasizes that immigrant hopes for improved conditions often did not materialize at least not
for a long while. For instance, many immigrants worked brutal low paying jobs while living in
crowded tenement style housing.

After discussing the reasons for immigration, the presentation focuses on the voyage to
the United States, arrival in Locust Point and the medical examination that followed. We explain
to the students that most immigrants at this time traveled to the United States via steamship often
in very crowded conditions, sleeping on berths (metal bunks) around lots of strangers, often
speaking different languages. After arriving in Baltimore Harbor, the steamship would dock at
Locust Point in Baltimore. Locust Point was an immigration port from 1868 to 1915. During this
time, Locust Point was the third largest port of immigration to the United States, Ellis Island
being the largest and Boston being the second. Over its 47 years as an immigration port, 1.2
immigrants entered the U.S. through Locust Point. Unlike Ellis Island, Locust Point did not have
onsite facilities for medical examinations. Therefore, the medical exam for infection and
contagious disease was conducted on board the steamship. The museum tries to emphasize to the
students the huge relief it was to pass the medical exam. Failure to pass the medical exam could
prevent one from entering the United States. If one's health did not improve during a two week
quarantine they would be deported back to Europe with families separated and immigration plans
thwarted.

After guiding the students through the process of arriving in America, the program
elaborates the way European immigrants established new lives in Baltimore, particularly how
Jewish immigrants built community in the Jonestown neighborhood, the location of the JMM.
After asking students what things an immigrant to a new city might need upon arrival we
elaborate how Jewish residents of Jonestown found jobs, housing and schools. We explain that
while immigrants in general worked in low-paid jobs, Jewish immigrants predominantly found
their low-paid jobs in the garment and tailoring industries. However, some of Baltimore’s Jewish
residents worked in the canning industry or opened very small businesses. We emphasize the use
of child labor and the conditions of sweatshop labor. The program elaborates that the only way
many immigrants could afford housing was by living in tenements with multiple families living
in one building. In order to acquire citizenship and develop skills that could get them out of
sweatshops and tenement housing, many Jewish immigrants in Jonestown sought night
schooling. After covering these basic necessities we elaborate the ways community was
developed in Jonestown through synagogues, Jewish recreational societies, street markets, and
different education institutions.

To help me learn this program, Lily Herman, the Education Program Manager at the
JMM, provided me with multiple tools. She had pre-existing typed up a script for me to study,
and provided a recorded delivery of the presentation for me to imitate. I recorded myself reading
the script with my phone and listened to it many times over. I also did a test run of the program
with Lily which I felt very well prepared for.

The first real experience of the presentation went very well in my opinion. All the words
came out and I felt in control of the presentation. However, since the presentation was digitally
delivered to an in person class, it was very difficult to communicate with the students. This made
the interactive part not work out too great. I would ask questions and not get much of a response,
despite the instructors prodding the students. However everything that I was in control of went
very smoothly.

The Educator Cohort at the Jewish Museum of Maryland

Thomas Kelly

Blog post #2: The Peary Collection

 Joan Steinly-Marks

While working at Special Collections in the Albin O. Kuhn Library during Summer 2024, my main project was working on the Peary Collection. This collection features more than 500 photos from Robert Peary’s various trips to Greenland and towards the North Pole. The majority of these photographs were for use in his books “Northward Over the Great Ice” and “The North Pole,” but some family photographs and photos that did not end up being used in the books are included.

The first step in this project was to catalog each photograph, as I described in my previous post. Briefly: each photo needed to be assigned an Object ID if it did not have one (a number used to standardize searching for items within the whole of Special Collections), be described, named, if possible find the book the photograph was used in, who took the photo, approximately when, etcetera. This process took a good while to complete. The majority of photographs did not have an Object ID written on the back or on the folder they were stored in. This did not mean, however, that they did not previously have an Object ID assigned to them. Using records from previous attempts to catalog this collection, I was able to find the identity of these photographs which had not been properly labeled. Most of the photographs without an Object ID label had never been given an Object ID in the first place, so I assigned them each one.

The next step was to scan each photograph. Using a high-quality photo scanner each photograph in the collection was scanned so that it could be uploaded to the Special Collections website for researchers to easily access. The information gathered in the identification phase can then be included with the scans to help researchers find what they are looking for.

In my next and final post, I will discuss the difficulties I faced throughout this project, what I learned, and my ultimate takeaways.

Typical Work at Special Collection

Joan Steinly-Marks

For my internship in Summer 2024, I worked at Special Collections at the Albin O. Kuhn Library at UMBC. My main project involved scanning and organizing the photos in the Robert Peary collection. This meant going through each photo in the collection, taking notes on its appearance, source, size, and more, and creating a high-resolution scan. Each photo is assigned an Object ID number, which allows for easy searching and identification of a specific photo. For the majority of the images, I had to assign them an Object ID, as they had never been assigned one. It was important to take good notes on what the image depicted as duplicate images are assigned the same Object ID followed by a, b, c, etc. By having descriptive notes of the photo’s contents I could easily identify if an image was likely a duplicate and find the original image to confirm.

Some tasks took priority over my main project. Maintenance tasks are especially important. This includes things like reshelving books and other items, processing new items, and creating protective casings for items that require them. A new collection, the Garrett collection, often took priority. Carts full of new books would come in for me to process and shelve. Many of these books are older, which meant they required protective casing. I spent several days creating box-type casings made of thick folded paper to protect these books. Books with dust covers are protected using a specific type of plastic that is folded to form a second dust cover over the original one that keeps it clean and safe. Staying on the same project every day can get tiring, so it was nice to have these maintenance tasks occasionally pop up to give me something new to do. Then I would return to the Peary collection with renewed excitement.

In my next post, I will go into detail on the Peary project and my tasks relating to it. I will discuss the difficulties I experienced in dealing with some photos, the research I did to find information on the images, and how I learned to properly handle photos.

Blog Post 2: Echoes of Resistance: Connecting the American Civil War and the Indian Rebellion of 1857

 

As part of my internship at the Underground Railroad Education Center (UREC), I’m researching connections between the American Civil War and the Indian Rebellion of 1857. My project, "Echoes of Resistance," explores how these uprisings, though separated by distance, reflect shared struggles for freedom.

Setting the Stage: A World in Conflict

In the mid-1800s, both India and the United States were dealing with social and political tensions. In India, British rule under Lord Dalhousie led to more control over Indian lands and culture, stirring resentment. Meanwhile, the United States was divided over slavery, with rising conflicts leading to the Civil War. Britain was also involved in other global conflicts, like the Crimean War, which added to the atmosphere of unrest.

The Indian Rebellion of 1857: A Fight for Freedom

The Indian Rebellion began as a revolt against British rule. Frustrations were high due to land takeovers and cultural disrespect, such as the new rifle cartridges rumored to be greased with cow and pig fat, which angered Hindu and Muslim soldiers. Leaders like Nana Sahib and the Rani of Jhansi led the fight for independence, and cities like Kanpur and Lucknow saw fierce battles. The British response was swift and brutal, aiming to prevent future uprisings.

Searching for Global Connections

While I have found lots of information on individual events within the Indian Rebellion, finding materials that directly link the Indian Rebellion to the American Civil War has been challenging. However, I’ve noticed some key themes that connect the two, such as the use of violence to maintain control, cultural clashes, and the power struggles between local populations and foreign rulers. Both movements were responses to different forms of oppression—British imperialism in India and slavery in the United States.

Although direct connections are hard to find, I see a strong similarity in how both revolts reflect a desire for freedom and self-respect. Each uprising had its own unique causes and leaders, but the shared fight against control and exploitation makes them part of a larger story of global resistance.

Challenges and Insights

One challenge has been finding sources that directly connect these events. Instead, I am focusing on broader themes like resistance and inequality that link them in spirit. This approach has taught me to look beyond obvious connections to find deeper, shared ideas.

 

Personal Reflections

As someone from Bangladesh, I grew up knowing the importance of the 1857 Indian Rebellion. Studying it alongside the American Civil War has shown me how people around the world have fought similar battles for justice. This project has helped me see the ways history connects us, and I’m glad to support UREC’s mission of using history to inspire change.

What’s Next?

Next, I plan to continue exploring how these two uprisings might have influenced each other and how they connect to larger movements for freedom. Working at UREC has been both challenging and rewarding, and I look forward to learning more about these powerful stories of resistance.

My Project: African American Decoy makers in the Chesapeake Bay Reigon

 

The main project I was working on at the Havre De Grace Decoy Museum was working on the installation of the African American decoy makers exhibit. Up until that exhibit was put in, all of the decoy makers that had specific focus on them were white. We did have decoys made by black carvers, but without much information on them. The exhibit itself was split into two cases: One which focused on black carvers in the Delmarva area from the past, and one which focused on those currently working in the present day. The latter had carvings from Doug Gibson, a highly skilled carver who mainly carves in the Havre de Grace style, though with a unique feature of using woodburning to detail his decoys, and James Johnson, a carver from Chesapeake City who does much simpler carvings in his own style. The carvers on display in the historical case have a very interesting story to them. That mainly holds decoys by Pied and Sherman Jones, a father and son pair. Pied mainly worked in the late nineteenth century, while Sherman’s carvings come from the early twentieth. Sherman specifically worked under a white carver by the name of Llyod Tyler. Due to racism at the time, Sherman was often unable to sell his decoys under his own name, so many of his were signed and sold by Tyler. Today, this fact does make it a bit difficult to identify which decoys are Tyler’s, and which were actually made by Sherman. Mostly this is determined by stylistic differences, though the museum had to work with local collectors who have been studying decoys for years to determine who made what.

When I got to the museum, the bulk of the research and identification for these decoys had been complete. My role was primarily in documenting and accessioning the decoys we received. The Jones decoys were largely either moved to the new exhibit from other places in the museum, or had to be borrowed on loan from local collectors. The Johnson and Gibson decoys, on the other hand, were mostly donations, which we received in large numbers from both the carvers. In documenting these I had to get pictures from multiple angles of each object, attach a catalogue number to each of them, and complete PastPerfect entries for each. Once that was completed, I also got to assist with the arrangement of the display cases. The older collectors and curators were the main ones deciding which objects were actually put on display, but I assisted with laying out the displays, and making sure the objects were organized in a visually appealing way that still gave each decoy full visibility.

 

The Struggles and Difficulties with Oral History

     During my internship with Hope To You Community Church, the main project I had the honor of working on is the collection and writing up of the oral history of the church. The process of the internship included me creating my own questions to ask certain members of the church’s congregation about their experience with Hope To You Community Church and compiling each of the congregation’s statements and creating a coherent narrative. Through this process I had experienced a few difficulties through this project. As with anything that deals with memories there will be issues of information matching as I had experienced with this project. There were three people that I interviewed that were part of the church’s congregation for many years and when I questioned a certain event in the church’s history to each person, all three gave me different years. I was prepared for this sort of issue and had hoped that I could get a clearer answer from interviewing the founding pastor of Hope To You Community Church. However, that particular scheduling was and still is the biggest difficulty I faced with this internship. The founding pastor never got back to me about a good date to do a video call and when I offered to send him a document with the questions he could answer he never answered those messages leaving me to estimate and give an in-between time period for that event. The other difficulty I faced with this project is of course the scheduling of these interviews, since it was during the summer many of these people wanted to go on vacation and I had to schedule around that but the hardest bit was scheduling an interview with a person in the Philippines. Having a twelve hour difference but we were able to find a time that worked. Difficulties and hardships are bound to happen in any form and with resilience and creativity I was able to work around those difficulties even if it was a bit difficult.