The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will remember Holocaust victims, survivors, and their families on Tuesday.
The “Evening of Remembrance” will commemorate Yom HaShoah, an annual worldwide observance of more than six million Jews and others murdered and persecuted through Nazi atrocities. The event is in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Springfield.
The ALPLM will open its doors to the public at 6 p.m., giving guests an opportunity to visit “Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory.” The exhibit, on loan from the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, features personal artifacts and intimate stories curated from survivors of seven genocides.
In addition, the ALPLM will premiere “A Promise Kept,” a 14-minute film shown on a customized surround screen. The film by Illinois Holocaust Center features the late Fritzie Fritzshall, an Auschwitz survivor who made Illinois home after WWII. Fritzshall walks viewers through her Czechoslovakian home and then through current-day Auschwitz, reflecting on her life in the camp.
A Yom HaShoah commemoration will begin at 7 p.m. in the museum’s Union Theater. Writings of Holocaust victims and survivors will be read by area descendants, and classical musicians will perform, allowing guests moments of reflection. The event is free and open to the public.