Holocaust educational material to be donated to Boone County Historical Museum

By Lisa Rodgers
Reporter
BOONE COUNTY- “When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 no one would have believed it possible that 12 years later he would become one of the most infamous people of all time. In those 12 years, he turned one of the most civilized nations in the world into one of the most barbarous of all time.
By the time his time in power had come to an end, he had contributed to the deaths of over fifty million people during the Second World War; Germany was destroyed and millions of people all around the world had been pulled into the most ferocious war history had ever seen.
In addition to all of this, he had created a racial state in which all deemed unfit to live there were either persecuted, enslaved, or simply murdered. Among the many victims of Nazi persecution, most tragically of all, Hitler made it his aim to murder every Jewish person within his territory. Men, women and children, all were to be killed. He succeeded in killing over two thirds of them. Six million Jews were murdered. This is what we call the Holocaust,” according to http://holocausthistory.net/start.htm.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has proudly announced Rebecca Girardin, of Rockford, Ill. the recipient of its inaugural Educational Resources Giveaway, a nationwide drawing for more than a dozen Holocaust-related books, DVDs and other teaching tools to primarily benefit students.
This past fall more than 3,400 individuals from all over the country entered a drawing hosted by the Museum to win Holocaust educational materials for their own personal use or to share with a library or a school of their choosing.
On Friday, Jan. 22 at 3:30 p.m. the public is cordially invited to the Boone County Historical Museum as Estelle Laughlin, a Holocaust survivor and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum volunteer who is based in Chicago, Ill. will present Rebecca Girardin with the materials. Girardin will then present the educational materials to the Boone County Historical Museum. Girardin’s 92-year-old grandfather-in-law, a World War II liberator, plans to attend the ceremony.
Rebecca Girardin is a Director of Nursing at a local geriatric facility. Girardin is the mother of three children ages 10, eight and five.
“I’m honored to accept these educational materials and look forward to sharing them with my children, their friends and classmates, and everyone in my community,” Girardin said.“I have visited the museum twice. Once as a teenager and once as an adult. I have never forgotten the impact it has left on me.”
“We are so pleased to have this special opportunity to share the museum’s educational resources with the community in Belvidere, and, most important, to hear together the incredible first-hand account of Holocaust survivor Estelle Laughlin,” Director of Education Initiatives at the Museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education Gretchen Skidmore said. “Individual stories, such as these, are our most precious resource.”
Boone County Historical Museum plans to loan out the Holocaust-related materials to area schools through a program called “Teacher Trunk” where teachers can borrow a trunk full of resources on different historical subjects and use it in their classrooms.
“The educational materials that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Rebecca are donating to us will be very beneficial to our museum and educational programming. We are so excited and thankful to be receiving it,” Executive Director of the Boone County Historical Museum Anna Pivoras said.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is living memorial to the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors.
For more information, visit www.ushmm.org.
Boone County Historical Museum is located at 314 S. State St., Belvidere. Their phone number is (815) 544-8391. They can also be reached by at: http://www.bchmuseum.org/.
“The mission of the Boone County Historical Museum is to stimulate interest in Boone County history through education, research and collection and preservation of artifacts and archival materials”