By Phillip Lee
LIBERAL, Kan. – Seward County Community College Library is one of 50 U.S. libraries newly selected to host Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.
Following a highly successful tour to 50 libraries from 2021 to 2023, the touring library exhibition— based on the special exhibition of the same name at the Museum in Washington, D.C. — will travel to an additional 50 U.S. libraries from 2024 to 2026, covering wide distances from Hawaii and Alaska to Texas and New Hampshire.
Americans and the Holocaust will be on display at the SCCC Library, along with a series of related special events, from Oct. 23 to Dec. 4, 2026.
“We’re extremely proud and honored that the SCCC Library has been selected to host this informative and powerful exhibition,” said Casandra Norin, library director, SCCC Library. “It’s an important topic that often gets forgotten. The grant also gives us the opportunity to have great programming around the display.”
The 1,100-square-foot exhibition examines various aspects of American society: the government, the military, refugee aid organizations, the media and the general public. Drawing on a remarkable collection of primary sources from the 1930s and ’40s, the exhibition tells the stories of Americans who acted in response to Nazism, challenging the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. It provides a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust.
In addition to the traveling exhibition on loan, the Library received a $3,000 cash grant to support public programs. The grant also covered one library staff member’s attendance at an orientation workshop at the Museum.
To learn more about the exhibition, visit ushmm.org/americans-ala.
