LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — “The Holocaust: Reconstructing Shattered Humanity” is now on display at the Governor’s office located off Bermuda Road and Harrah’s Court, south of Harry Reid International Airport.
Heidi Straus is the president of the Nevada Center for Humanity and curator of all the artifacts. She’s teamed up with UNLV grad students to display the collection. Straus has spent years gathering never before seen items.
“From auction houses, private dealers, from people who are in Poland that find things in attics that survived the war from striped uniforms,” Straus remarked. “It has been a journey, just the culmination of this and to finally open so we can show the public is such an honor.”
The exhibit focuses on the experiences of Jews and other groups not just as victims but as resistors, refugees and resilient survivors. Items range from the 1920s to the 1940s, showing the rise of the Nazi power, oppression and liberation throughout Europe.
Steven Butler is one of the student docents.
“I think some of the great things about this exhibit individual are some of our artifacts especially those from local Las Vegas survivors,” Butler said. “History is all around us, it impacts everything that we deal with in our day to day lives.”
Straus said we need to connect to our history to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes in the future.
“There’s been a rise in antisemitism. Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years, it’s not new. It simply changes and morphs and resurfaces in another form,” Straus added.
For student docent Beatriz Avila-Marquez, she’s making connections from history to her personal life, all while practicing those beliefs on campus too.
“At UNLV, it’s very important for us to have inclusivity for everybody so we want to make sure it’s a safe place for everybody especially with our classes. We make sure that we’re talking about subjects that are going on right now, in the past and how we can connect them and just being advocates for people around us in the university in general,” Avila-Marquez explained.
The display will be available to see from Dec. 4 through March 15, 2025 by appointment only. You can contact Heidi.Straus@unlv.edu to make an appointment.
