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5/12/2003
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Holocaust Museum Fundraising Campaign A Success
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Strong community support has made Holocaust Museum Houston’s 2003
Campaign a tremendous success, with more than $570,000 raised so far.
Campaign donors were treated to a rare glimpse of the historic,
original Moon Landscape drawing at a reception May 12 in the Museum’s
Morgan Family Center. The Holocaust-era pencil sketch, drawn by
14-year-old Petr Ginz while imprisoned in the Theresienstadt
Concentration Camp and Ghetto, depicts the surface of the moon with
Earth in the distance. Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon carried a replica
of the drawing aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
The evening’s program, attended by almost 200 guests, featured
comments from Ramon’s widow, Rona, as well as from HMH Executive
Director Susan Llanes-Myers and from HMH Chairman David P. Bell.
“We all have strong loyalty and commitment to a host of
worthwhile causes,” said Bell. “But when it comes to this Museum, we
have something in addition. We have love. And tonight, on behalf of a
grateful board of directors, I am deeply honored to acknowledge that
love, and recommit to you that this institution will always endeavor to
be worthy of your generosity of spirit, your passion for our work, and,
indeed, your love.”
Attendees also heard more about the history of the Moon
Landscape drawing from Yehudit Shendar, senior art curator of the
Museums Division at Yad Vashem. Shendar hand-carried the drawing from
Jerusalem to Houston, where it was placed in the Holocaust Museum’s
Memorial Room for public viewing on May 12, prior to the donor
reception that night.
“It’s a great honor for me to be here and bring with me this
drawing, which is quite intimate in size, but tells a great story,” she
said about the small Ginz piece. “It’s a story of courage, of someone
incarcerated, unable to leave the confinement of what was the
Theresienstadt Ghetto. But what we have learned – that there are no
boundaries to imagination and there are no boundaries to the human
soul.”
Although Ginz and other children were allowed to go to school
and take part in cultural activities in the “model” camp of
Theresienstadt, most youths were ultimately sent to their deaths in
Auschwitz. When Ginz was deported, his sister remained behind and
managed to save his diary and drawings. The original Ginz diary was on
display at the Holocaust Museum in late 2001 and early 2002 during the
exhibit, Private Writings, Public Records: Diaries of Young People in
the Holocaust. The original drawing has never before been seen in the
United States and Holocaust Museum Houston was not only the first site
where it was displayed, but also the only site in America where it was
available for public viewing.
One of the most dramatic aspects of the evening’s program
involved children and combined elements of remembrance with hope for
the future. Elena Bell, Jared Berg, Hannah Davis, Derek Fossi, Randall
Fossi, Michelle Midlo, and Evan Mucasey, all children or grandchildren
of campaign donors, read excerpts of poems either written by children
in Theresienstadt or written about the Columbia astronauts. The poetry
reading ended with a quote from The Diary of Anne Frank, after which
the children placed stones on the pedestal on which the Moon Landscape
drawing stood.
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| | For media inquiries,
please contact:
Ira D. Perry
Director, Marketing & Public Relations
Tel: (713) 942-8000, ext. 103
Mobile: (832) 277-5693
E-mail: news@hmh.org
| Our Public Relations team is eager to assist you in coverage of activities at Holocaust Museum Houston.
All requests for interviews or on-site photography or videography by members of the media must be coordinated in advance through our Public Relations office by calling 713-942-8000, ext. 103 or e-mailing news@hmh.org.
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| | The Museum is open to the public seven days a week.
General admission is free.
Monday to Friday,
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday,
Noon to 5 p.m.
First Thursday of each month, 5 to 8 p.m.
| The Laurie and Milton Boniuk Resource Center and Library is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Library is closed Saturdays and Sundays.
The Museum is closed for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. For other holiday hours, visit the "Events" tab on the Museum’s Web site at www.hmh.org.
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