The Virginia Holocaust Museum and VPM are partnering to bring The U.S. and the Holocaust: Lessons from Virginia’s Response - a screening and panel discussion for The U.S. and the Holocaust , a three-part documentary directed and produced by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, exploring America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century.
The screening will offer a broad view of the six-hour docuseries that premiered on VPM Sept. 18. To view the full series, go to PBS.org or stream it through your PBS Passport access.
After the screening, VPM’s President and CEO Jayme Swain will moderate a discussion on Virginia’s response to the Holocaust, what our collective history teaches us and which lessons reverberate today.
Joining Swain on the panel are
- Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, historian, curator and archivist for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She is also featured in the documentary and is author of Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe.
- Bob Gillette, educator, historian and author of Escape to Virginia: From Nazi Germany to Thalhimer’s Farm.
- Mallory Noe-Payne, Radio IQ Richmond reporter and bureau chief. She spent a year in Munich researching memory, justice and how a society can collectively confront its sins.
- Michael Paul Williams, Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist and columnist. Williams is the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary about the Richmond protest movements in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd leading to the removal of many Confederate monuments.
Williams and Noe-Payne produced the NPR podcast, Memory Wars — a six-part series about how Germany has confronted its horrific past and whether America could do the same.
Bob Gillette is featured in VPM's most recent episode of Hidden History with Brian Bullockhighlighting William B. Thalhimer's efforts to save German Jewish youth during the 1930's.
Following the panel discussion, attendees can ask questions and engage the panelists.
This is only an in-person event. Valet parking at the venue will be available.
Register online for this free event.
FUNDING FOR THE U.S AND THE HOLOCAUST WAS PROVIDED BY: Bank of America; David M. Rubenstein; the Park Foundation; the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation; Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; and by the following members of The Better Angels Society: Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine; Jan and Rick Cohen; Allan and Shelley Holt; the Koret Foundation; David and Susan Kreisman; Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder; Blavatnik Family Foundation; Crown Family Philanthropies, honoring the Crown and Goodman Families; the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund; Dr. Georgette Bennett and Dr. Leonard Polonsky; The Russell Berrie Foundation; Diane and Hal Brierley; John and Catherine Debs; and Leah Joy Zell and the Joy Foundation. Funding was also provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by public television viewers.
