Show at downtown Jacksonville library looks at what Americans knew about the Holocaust

Tom Szaroleta, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
·3 min read
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A new multimedia exhibition at the Main Library in downtown Jacksonville looks at what Americans knew about the Holocaust and what they did about it.

"The United States alone could not have prevented the Holocaust, but more could have been done to save some of the 6 million Jews who were killed," reads one of the first panels of the exhibition, on the library's fourth floor.

Jacksonville is one of 50 libraries across the country chosen to show "Americans and the Holocaust," which features five two-sided panels and several interactive video kiosks. The show was put together by the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and will be in Jacksonville through Oct. 12. It's free to visit during library hours.

A major piece of the exhibition is the reporting of American Institute of Public Opinion polls taken during the 1930s and '40s. A 1938 poll, for instance, showed that 6 percent of respondents approved of Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany and that 71 percent disapproved of plans to allow a larger number of Jewish immigrants to enter the U.S. A 1939 poll showed that 66 percent opposed a plan to let 10,000 refugee children into the country. A 1943 poll — taken after U.S. newspapers had splashed "Nazis wiping out Jews in cold blood" across front pages around the country — found that 28 percent of respondents believed it was a rumor and another 24 percent had no opinion.

Jeffrey Rood holds a copy of "In Search For Survival," the book based on the writings of his great-grandmother Genie Golembiowski, who was Jewish, on her journey to escape the Nazis and settle in the United States during World War II.
Jeffrey Rood holds a copy of "In Search For Survival," the book based on the writings of his great-grandmother Genie Golembiowski, who was Jewish, on her journey to escape the Nazis and settle in the United States during World War II.

Jeffrey Rood, a Jacksonville commercial real estate broker and attorney, viewed the exhibition last week on one of its first days. It really hit home for him, he said, because his grandparents were European Jews who met at a United Nations refugee camp in Austria and spent much of the 1930s and '40s wandering around the continent searching for a safe place to live before eventually moving to South Florida. They kept notes throughout their travels and later published a book, "Search for Survival, The Years of Wandering of the Jews of Volyn."

"I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know that my family were Holocaust survivors," Rood said.

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Rood said he's not sure who published the memoir, but it must have been in very small numbers. He knows of just three copies still existing, so he worked with Clay Cross from Jacksonville evidence management firm Threshold Discovery to put the book into digital form.

He said the exhibition at the library makes some powerful points, but his family has never held any resentment against the United States for its actions during the war.

"My family is very patriotic as far as being thankful and appreciative. If not for Western soldiers, they would have died, obviously," he said. "There was plenty of resentment about the Holocaust, but I never heard anything in my home about why Americans took so long."

Tammy Kiter from the special collections department of the downtown Jacksonville Public Library gives Jonathan Evans and his co-worker Cindy Brunner a tour of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit currently on display on the fourth floor of the Jacksonville Public Library, Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
Tammy Kiter from the special collections department of the downtown Jacksonville Public Library gives Jonathan Evans and his co-worker Cindy Brunner a tour of the "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibit currently on display on the fourth floor of the Jacksonville Public Library, Wednesday, September 13, 2023.

The library is offering 25-minute docent-led tours of the exhibition as well as field trips for students in grade 8 or higher. Other events related to the Holocaust show include:

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Public Libary hosts 'Americans and the Holocaust' exhibit