A new digital project that documents the stories of Nebraskans who either survived the Holocaust or helped liberate the concentration camps at the end of WW II has gone live online.
"Nebraska Stories of Humanity: Holocaust Survivors and World War II Veterans" features the stories of 5 Nebraskans with stories from the Holocaust. The featured individuals are survivors Bea Karp, Hanna Rosenberg Gradwohl and Irving Shapiro and liberators Clarence Williams and Maurice Udes.
The project was spearheaded by UNL doctoral candidate Beth Dotan. She spent the last two years working with Laura Weakly, a metadata encoding specialist and a team of students to scan and organize nearly 900 documents, photographs, postcards and letters. Those, along with the stories told by the people featured in the project, will allow the general public to gain a deeper understanding of the Holocaust as well as provide a research and teaching tool.
The online project can also be used as part of the recently passed LB 888 in the state legislature. The bill requires the State Board of Education to adopt standards of education on the Holocaust in Nebraska schools.