Organizations  /  Holocaust Resource Center

Overview

The Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo (HRC) began work as a center for teachers and researchers in 1983, with a non-sectarian group of founders including survivors, led by educator Toby Ticktin Back. The center began with funding from the Buffalo Jewish Federation, state grants and private foundations.  It was officially opened as a center on March 18, 1984 at the Jewish Community Center, Getzville, with a showing of “As If It Were Yesterday.” Directed by Myriam Abramowicz the film retold of the rescue of children from the Nazis during the Belgian Occupation.

The launch of the Holocaust Resource Center was the result of several years of planning that brought together other independent activities under one organization during the 1980s. The Kedoshim Committee, a semi-autonomous grouping allied with the Jewish Federation organized annual Holocaust community wide commemoration. In addition, Holocaust survivor Ruben Literman and community lay leader, Morris Mesch, led a sub-committee to commission the creation of a Holocaust Memorial choosing the artist Bernard (Tony) Rosenthal as its sculptor. Committee members included a number of survivors, including Alex Bialys, David Blitzer, Saul Friedman, Nathan Lewkowitz, William Markowitz, Max Pohl, Nadzia Rosenbers, Julian Silbiger, Abraham Traub and Rubin Literman (Co-Chairman and Treasurer). Morris Mesch was the community committee co-chair, while Arnold B. Gardner was Chairman of Fund Raising Drive. Lester I. Levin and William L. Grossman, served as executives of their respective agencies, the Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Center, and Sydney Abzug, retired Federation executive also served. Other members included artist and University Professor, Harvey Breverman and John M. Laping, Jewish Community Center architect,  Samuel S. Alt, Eugene Bester, Saul Bogan, Isadore Snitzer, Oscar Stromberg and Jacob Weinberger.

The memorial is located in front of the Benderson Jewish Community Center, and was dedicated on April 17, 1977. Consisting of five panels that turn on a center shaft like the pages of a book, the dedication panel bears the dates during which the Holocaust occurred, and the Hebrew and English words “Let us not forget.” Other panels indicate where death camps were located on maps. One panel includes a dedication to the defenders of the Warsaw Ghetto, while another panel includes the text of the Partisans’ Song. Other panels include a tattooed number and a quotation from Anne Frank’s diary. A traditional prayer in memory of the dead, appears on a further panel, while the tenth panel is devoted to the creation of the State of Israel. The sculpture was rededicated on May 4, 1997, and the sculpture was relocated in 2012 into more prominent site in front of the redesigned entrance to the Jewish Community Center.

Separate from the Holocaust Memorial sculpture commission, community commemorative events were held annually at the direction of many survivors. A number of local survivors including Gerda Klein and Dr. Sol Messinger also gave public talks to student groups. Toby Ticktin Back, a teacher at the High School of Jewish Studies, Bureau of Jewish Education used survivors testimony in educational courses from the 1970s from her own research, however, there was no formal process to collect survivor testimonies. In February 1980, Toby Back wrote to Leonard Rochwarger, then the President of the Jewish Federation of Buffalo seeking support for the establishment of a center, that could do this work and more.

The first meeting of the Holocaust Resource Center Study Committee was held on July 16, 1980. The committee drew its membership from educators and survivors. It included historian Mark Goldman, Rabbi Dr. Martin L. Goldberg, Kathy and Richard Gordon, Professor George and Wilma Iggers, Gerda Klein, Ruben Literman, Ethel Melzer, Dr. Sol Messinger, Dr. Alan Podet, Anna Post, Jane Fischman, Reed Taylor, the Rev. Robert Grimm, Rabbi Leonard Buchen, William S. Allen, Clayton Adams, and Marlene Glickman, among others.

In early 1981 secured funding from New York State and local foundations to start a Holocaust Resource Center, supplemented by monies from the Buffalo Jewish Federation. Les Arries, President of Channel 4 and then President of the local chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews provided recording time for survivor testimonies at Channel 4 as part of their support of Buffalo Community activities. Over several years, 90 interviews were created, later converted to DVD’s that have since been digitized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A listing of Buffalo interviews can be searched here.  The testimonies include Holocaust survivors, liberators, resisters, fighters, and righteous gentiles interviewed by Toby Tickin Back and Rich Newberg. For some of the interviews, a synopsis was created by Dr. George Rudinger and Luba Literman.

An administrative archive that surveys the activity of the Holocaust Resource Center as an educational and commemorative organization is housed at the University at Buffalo.

The Holocaust Resource Center itself also maintains archival materials relating to individual survivors and speakers who have been part of the Center’s active outreach and educational activities. These records remain within the Holocaust Resource Center and some of these materials are available online through individual stories of survivors, additional testimonies, as well as longer films. A special profile by the Buffalo News in April 2017, featured 31 local WNY Holocaust-era Survivors.