A traveling exhibit of images and graphics telling the story of the Holocaust – the genocide of six million Jews during World War II – is on display through April 2 in William Carey University’s Lucile Parker Gallery.
“Shoah: How was it humanly Possible?” is from the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel. It combines imagery and history documenting the tragedy of the Holocaust.
William Carey Provost Dr. Scott Hummel, who visited the Holocaust Remembrance Center last summer, said the exhibit is more important than just art.
“This is a difficult exhibit,” he said. “It is an uncomfortable exhibit, but it’s a necessary exhibit unfortunately. I always observed students and those that went with us this summer. It is something that is emotional. It is something that changes you when you see these images. I have seen them before, and yet I still find them very emotional.”
Hummel said although the photographs define a time in history, the exhibit is not just historical.
“Although the pictures are black and white and represent history, it is much more than history,” he said. “I think that it all is also unfortunately very relevant today, and it’s going to continue to be relevant. More than history, it is also art. In some ways, it is difficult to see these images and call it art. But, this is an art exhibit.”
The question, “How was it humanly possible?” is difficult to ask, Hummel stated. “If we think about civilizations, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that it was possible, but it happens,” he noted.
“This in many ways, I think, helps to not just point out the historical atrocity and horror, but I think as we go through here asking the question ‘How was it humanly possible?’ then part of that question leads us to events before the Holocaust. What conditions allowed the Holocaust to happen? What was it in the European communities that made it easier for something that seemed impossible or so horrible to happen?”
Hummel said the conditions still exist for history to repeat itself.
“However, ultimately you go around and look at this exhibit to ask the question in the present tense, ‘How is it humanly possible?’” he said. “When we think about the conditions that led to the Holocaust, I think we could think about the conditions that could once again lead to a Holocaust.”
The Holocaust was an unprecedented genocide, perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, with the aim of annihilating the Jewish people. The primary motivation was the Nazis’ anti-Semitic racist ideology. Between 1933 and 1941, Nazi Germany pursued a policy that dispossessed the Jews of their rights and their property, followed by the branding and concentration of the Jewish population.
In 1941 the Nazis and their collaborators launched the systematic extermination of the Jews. By 1945, nearly six million Jews had been murdered. The Righteous Among the Nations are non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save persecuted Jews. Their stories serve as a model of heroism and humane and moral behavior, as well as the preservation of the sanctity of human life.
The exhibit offers viewers the opportunity to follow the timeline of the Holocaust from its early roots in 1933 through the liberation of the death camps at the end of World War II in 1945. Viewers can learn through images and first-person accounts about the atrocities and humanity of those who suffered through this period.
Hummel, Dr. Rick Wilemon, Dr. Gretchen Waters and Friends of Carey members traveled to Israel in summer 2019. They spent 12 days on a Christian pilgrimage to experience sites of the birthplace, life, crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The final day of the trip was spent at the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.