{"id":3496,"date":"2026-08-02T20:08:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3496"},"modified":"2026-08-02T20:08:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:08:29","slug":"holocaust-archives-were-dedicated-to-a-curator-whose-family-story-sparked-a-lifelong-quest-to-preserve-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3496","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust archives were dedicated to a curator whose family story sparked a lifelong quest to preserve history"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div><audio><\/audio><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For decades, Donald Wittenberg spent much of his free time scrupulously documenting how the Holocaust affected people in the Philadelphia region and educating people to prevent anything like it from happening again.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3494\">Trump says he will order halt to Iran strikes after parameters reached for deal to end war<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Now, the archives of the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center (HAMEC) in Elkins Park are being dedicated to Wittenberg, who died in March at age 79. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIn these more than difficult times, Don\u2019s efforts will go on, and we will always appreciate those efforts,\u201d HAMEC Board President Chuck Feldman said to family and friends gathered at the museum Sunday.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Feldman estimated that with Wittenberg\u2019s guidance, the museum and its educational programs have reached 400,000 young people in Pennsylvania and beyond.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Feldman said he had known Wittenberg since 1970, when they were young members of the Northeast Independent Democrats, helping to elect Milton Shapp for Pennsylvania governor. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Back then, the museum was in the basement of Yaakov Riz, who survived five years in a Soviet labor camp only to learn that 83 of his family members died in the Holocaust, Feldman said. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Though Riz was the museum\u2019s founder, Wittenberg \u2014 a public school teacher and administrator \u2014 helped build it into what it is today, Feldman said. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cDon found artifacts through the local community, whose owners were looking for a respectful and impactful resting place,\u201d Feldman said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Wittenberg\u2019s wife Bonnie said his motivation was partly personal. On his father\u2019s side, most of Wittenberg\u2019s family died in the Holocaust. Wittenberg wanted to know who they were, and who may have survived.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cHe was like a detective. He was trying to solve mysteries,\u201d Bonnie Wittenberg said. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>One example: Her husband became obsessed with finding where a distant relative had been buried. She wasn\u2019t sure if he ever found out, but unanswered questions like this one often drove his research. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>This curiosity marked his conversations with the many Jewish families who over the years came to him with their own family stories. \u201cHe wanted to tell the story right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Wittenberg\u2019s search for his ancestors continued a journey begun by his own Hungarian-born father, Joseph Wittenberg, said Donald\u2019s son Steven Wittenberg. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3492\">Phillies insist they\u2019re \u2018not scared of anyone\u2019 after Dodgers make big move for Tarik Skubal<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Joseph Wittenberg served in the U.S. Army during World War II, \u201cand when the war was over, he went back searching for his family, but he couldn\u2019t find them,\u201d Steven Wittenberg said. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>After Joseph died, Donald Wittenberg found personal journals and war trophies that revealed more about his family and his father\u2019s military service, he said. He learned his father had been in Normandy on D-Day plus one and had seen combat.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>One item, a Nazi flag taken from Nuremberg\u2019s city hall and signed by Joseph Wittenberg\u2019s comrades in the U.S. Army 102nd Cavalry Regiment, is now on display in the museum. So is Joseph Wittenberg\u2019s Army service coat, which Steven and his brother Jan remembered wearing when they were children.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>These objects, and the stories they tell, offer lessons for people today, Steven Wittenberg said: \u201cThe survivors are starting to pass away, and so you need to document that.\u201d <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Donald Wittenberg carefully chose every artifact in the museum, said Jacob Dupre, a Holocaust historian who worked as Wittenberg\u2019s assistant and who will be taking over as curator. Dupre noted that there were no images of death on display \u2014 a choice Wittenberg made. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Wittenberg did include evidence of Nazi atrocities in the display, however. Tom Brennan of Oreland acquired a canister that once held Zyklon B, a gas used to kill people. Brennan noted that the shape of the puncture holes in the canister were the size of a standard-issue German soldier\u2019s knife. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Other artifacts spoke to the resilience of those imprisoned in the camps, such as a tiny six-sided die made of bread dough. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>One poignant item, a handmade birthday card passed between two concentration camp prisoners, was translated from German to read, \u201cWhom the stork brought in May \/ the sun smiled on him. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The poem-like text of the card, written more than 90 years ago, concluded with the lines, \u201cEverything on Earth will change \/ when we\u2019re all home again.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Such messages of hope and endurance, found throughout the museum, still have something to teach people today, said HAMEC CEO Fabulous Flores. The museum tracked the yearslong process from the Nazi\u2019s hate campaign against Jews to the end of World War II.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe talk a lot about empathy,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWhen anti-Semitism is on the rise, when one group is targeted for hate, everyone is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3490\">Ryan Richter\u2019s courage is rewarded with a stunning late comeback win for the Union<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center is dedicating its archives to longtime curator Donald Wittenberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pennsylvania"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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