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Revolving Doors
Revolving Doors

Our exhibit at Chatham University. Read more for hours and information on scheduling a tour.

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Events
Events

Throughout the year, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh holds numerous events. While physically closed, we continue to host events online. Here's what we have coming up.

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CHUTZ-POW!
CHUTZ-POW!

CHUTZ-POW! is our ongoing acclaimed comic-book series that places stories of courage, resilience, and sacrifice at the forefront of Holocaust awareness.

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2021-2022 Annual Report
2021-2022 Annual Report

Find out what we accomplished this year with your support.

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Jews of the Somme
Jews of the Somme

A Pittsburgh-based, international initiative by Dr. David Rosenberg.

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Past Programs and Uploads

Holocaust Center Pittsburgh

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh connects the horrors of the Holocaust and antisemitism with injustices of today.

Holocaust Center Pittsburgh
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh celebrates the winners of the Middle School and High School Waldman International 38th Annual Arts & Writing Competition. The Awards Ceremony took place on May 10th, 2023, at the James Laughlin Music Hall on Chatham University's campus.
We encourage you to explore the accompanying digital program book, which has supplementary details and information: https://mcusercontent.com/323bdca0426db8dac3d820838/files/59fd3471-dca9-d9c6-54ae-d9ddac5c617a/HCP_YHBook2023_FinalWeb.pdf Please note that this program contains eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust and may be sensitive for viewers. Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is the cornerstone program of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. It is the day set aside to remember the approximately six-million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust Center’s annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration is a solemn community gathering that features a candle lighting ceremony, thematic readings, and a memorial for local survivors who have passed away. This year marked the first in-person program for the first time since 2019. The program features a film by Chatham University students; music written by suppressed composers of the Holocaust and performed a quartet of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and professional musicians; a candle lighting ceremony in honor of the six million Jews lost in the Holocaust, with additional candles lit in honor of the Liberators, Veterans, and the Righteous non-Jews who risked their lives to save the lives of their Jewish friends and neighbors; and a memorial for local survivors who have passed away.
Dr. Newsome tells the dynamic and inspiring history of the LGBTQ+ community’s original pride symbol by tracing the transformation of the pink triangle from a Nazi concentration camp badge into a widespread emblem of queer liberation, pride, and community. Drawing from unexplored archival sources and original interviews, Dr. Newsome showcases the voices of LGBTQ+ Holocaust victims and a rich tapestry of queer lives who found meaning in the pink triangle in a post-Holocaust world. This event was recorded on January 26th, 2023, and was hosted by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, Repair the World Pittsburgh, and the University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Program.
Recording of program conducted with CC Mellor Memorial Library on October 12, 2022. Original event description: Join us to learn more about the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, how they’re connecting the Holocaust and antisemitism to the injustices of today, and how you can be involved! Dr. Lauren Apter Bairnsfather, Executive Director, will speak about the various community partnerships and offerings the Center has and ways to get involved. Marcel L. Walker, Project Coordinator of CHUTZ-POW!, will introduce the Center’s original comic book series that brings local survivor testimony to life. Attendees will learn more about the CHUTZ-POW! Superheroes of the Holocaust series and how they can get copies for themselves and into their local schools.
Starting in 2004, the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition (PDEC) actively promoted awareness of war and genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. At the height of the advocacy effort, in partnership with national organizations like "Save Darfur" and other local organizations, PDEC coordinated petition drives, marches, and informational installations intended to educate the public about the War in Darfur and resulting genocide of non-Arabic Darfuris in western Sudan. One of the leaders of these local efforts was Ismail Omar, an immigrant from Darfur who never stopped fighting to make a positive change in his home country. His vision of peace in Darfur inspired the Pittsburgh community, and he once described the Jebel Marra region of his homeland as "like the Garden of Eden.” He passed away on November 17, 2021. One year after his passing, we hold this program to honor his legacy. We invite the community to join us to learn about the extraordinary work of Ismail Omar and the current situation in Sudan and what is needed now.
This program aired live on Zoom Thursday, October 13, 2022. Hosted by WQED and WQED Education. Moderated by Daniel Shaner, teacher at Baldwin - Whitehall School District and Holocaust Center's 2021-2022 Holocaust Educator of the Year. Panelist discussion followed by a Q&A session with participants. Panelists include: Lauren A. Bairnsfather, Ph.D., Director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. While writing her senior honors thesis at the University of Texas, she became acquainted with two Sephardic Holocaust survivors. Inspired by these women, she took an internship in the Photo Archives of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and quickly became full-time staff. She earned an MA at the University of Chicago and a PhD at the University of Texas. In July 2015, after working in Dallas and Austin, Lauren returned home to Southwestern PA to become head of the Holocaust Center. She is an Adjunct Professor of History at Chatham University and has been invited to lecture at Baylor University, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of South Carolina. Barbara Burstin, Ph.D. has been on the history faculty of both Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh for many years. At the current time she is teaching at Pitt and Chatham University as well. Her many classes have included the US and the Holocaust, Pride and Prejudice in American History, and the History of Pittsburgh. She has recently published a graphic booklet entitled America and the Holocaust targeted particularly for Junior and Senior High School students. In addition, she has written five books including After the Holocaust: The Migration of Polish Jews and Christians to Pittsburgh; Steel City Jews 1840-1915; Steel City Jews in Prosperity, Depression and War 1915-1950 and Sophie: The Incomparable Mayor Masloff. She has also served on the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission and assumed leadership roles in other local non-profits. She has led teacher training workshops, spoken extensively in the community and taught a number of wide-ranging courses for both the CMU and Pitt Osher senior citizen programs. Rebecca Erbelding has been a historian, curator, and archivist at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2003 and served as the lead historian on the Museum’s special exhibition, Americans and the Holocaust . She holds a PhD in American history from George Mason University and is the author of Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe (Doubleday, 2018), which won the National Jewish Book Award for excellence in writing based on archival research. She and her work are featured in the 2022 PBS documentary "The U.S. and the Holocaust," directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, a film for which she served as a historical advisor. John Spurlock, Ph.D., Professor of History Emeritus, Seton Hill University. Dr. Spurlock has been involved in Holocaust education since the 1980s, when he was teaching high school in his home city, Riverside, California. At Seton Hill University he was a member of one of the first faculty groups to study the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. In collaboration with the Yad Vashem archivist, he helped document Holocaust denial in the United States. He participated in the development of Seton Hill’s graduate certificate in Genocide and Holocaust Studies and served as coordinator of the program for several years. Since 2012 he has taught courses on World War II, Comparative Genocide, and Theories of Genocide. In 2022 he served as Co-Director of Grappling with Genocide, an NEH funded summer institute for middle and high school teachers.
Recorded at Chatham University on September 28, 2022. In the decade before his arrival in the United States in 1950, Mieczyslaw (Melvin) Goldman saw his home destroyed, his family torn apart, his health ruined, and nearly everyone he had ever known murdered in the death camps of the Third Reich. His survival of the years in the ghetto and Auschwitz, his long and slow recovery, and his attainment of a somewhat normal life were miraculous. Perhaps even more miraculous was his refusal to let his experience destroy his faith in God or his love for humanity. Over five years, his daughter, Lee Goldman Kikel, worked to turn her father’s story--a telling of his life through a series of recorded audio tapes--into a book recounting the tragedy and hope of one survivor’s experience. The book, Perseverance, was published in 2019. Lee will share her father’s story during this new installment in our Generations Speaker Series. Lee grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where she spent her early years at Wightman School, Taylor Allderdice High School, and her parents’ jewelry business. She later earned her BS in Psychology and master’s in Education from the University of Pittsburgh and worked in the mental health field as a rehabilitation counselor. A lifelong Pittsburgher, she resides in Hampton Township with her family. This event is part of the 2022 RADical Days, an annual program of the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD). The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is proud to receive RAD funding. Funding for the Generations Program is generously provided by the Sylvia & Martin Snow Family Fund
Content Warning: Please note that this interview contains some disturbing imagery of concentration camp conditions. Viewer discretion is advised. Students from Shaler Area High School interview Dr. Jessie Ramey, daughter of Robert Ramey, liberator of Ohrdruf concentration camp. Additional Resources: About the 89th infantry division: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-89th-infantry-division [CONTENT WARNING- GRAPHIC IMAGERY] Ohrdruf Camp: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ohrdruf About Alan Newell: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Allen-Newell
Content Warning: Please note that this interview contains verbal descriptions of concentration camp conditions and suicide. Viewer discretion is advised. Students from Riverside High School interview Guy Prestia, liberator of Dachau concentration camp. Additional Resources: About the 45th Infantry Division: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-45th-infantry-division About Dachau: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dachau About the Purple Heart: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/history-of-the-purple-heart
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