Stand at the “gate” to enter the Holocaust exhibit. I’m Renate Frydman, project director and curator for the “Prejudice and Memory” exhibit. In the years since 1960 when I first began speaking about the Holocaust, audiences have most responded to the personal items – a singular family picture, a passport with a red letter ”J,” a letter stating when and where grandparents were sent to be killed. The Holocaust exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force brings the millions down to the singular faces. They are your neighbors from all parts of the greater Dayton area. Now you know someone living right next to you could be a survivor, a liberator or a “righteous Gentile.” In collecting these many pictures and artifacts, I learned once again stories of incredible courage, of horror and sacrifices, of loss and rebirth. I am amazed at the trust contributors had in giving me the only picture of a parent or family member to use in this exhibit. I tried to treat each one with the reverence it deserves. I am grateful for the benefactors who made this exhibit possible and to the Boonshoft Museum of Natural History for having the vision to premier this exhibit in September 1997.

The two-year period of collection and of building this exhibit was intense and fulfilling. We present it to the people of this area as a memory of the past and a hope that prejudice will diminish in the future. With the firm belief in the resilience of the human spirit and the hope for a better tomorrow, I ask that you join me in Tikum Olam, helping heal the world.