Photo Exhibit Underway at TAMIU: ‘Rebirth after the Holocaust’

A photo exhibit on the plight of displaced refugees is on display at the Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) Senator Judith Zaffirini Student Success Center Lobby now through Thursday, Nov. 30.

Admission is free and open to the public.

The exhibit, “Rebirth after the Holocaust: The Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, 1945-1950,” illuminates the inspiring and untold history of Holocaust survivors in the years immediately following their liberation from the Nazis. Bergen-Belsen, a wartime concentration camp, became the largest displaced persons camp in Germany, at the time when more than 250,000 displaced, homeless Jewish survivors sought to recover from the destruction of their families and communities, regain their physical health and gather the strength and hope to create new families and new homes in new lands.

For five years, Bergen-Belsen became a self-governed Jewish community with political, cultural, religious, education and social activities which renewed Jewish life and a vibrant center of rehabilitation, reconstruction and rebirth.

The exhibit begins with the liberation when British soldiers encountered thousands of camp inmates, suffering from starvation, typhus and tuberculosis. It concludes with the closing of the camp in 1950, by which time most of the survivors had emigrated to Israel, the U.S., Canada and other countries.

 TAMIU’s University College is hosting the exhibit which is tied to the University College’s Reading the Globe book selection Common Read, “A Backpack, A Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka,” by Lev Golinkin.

Golinkin’s “Backpack” offers a compelling story of two intertwined stories:  a Jewish refugee family fleeing persecution, and a young man seeking to reclaim a shattered past.  

TAMIU’s Common Reading Program is a University-wide initiative spearheaded by University College that unites students, faculty and staff, and the community around a common academically oriented intellectual activity. Since 2008, the program has allowed all first-year students to engage in an internationally focused book through their University Seminar each fall semester. 

It provides the opportunity for discourse about issues relevant to students, and raises social awareness on a local and global scale. Faculty and staff also participate in the Common Read to foster and strengthen the growth of an intellectual community in and around the University in support of the students’ academic development. The Common Reading Program is an early directed effort in the higher education experience of all TAMIU students to develop an understanding of society and culture, one of TAMIU’s Undergraduate Learning Principles.

Students also have an opportunity to apply for a competitive opportunity to travel with a group of students, often to the setting of a Reading the Globe book.  To date, student groups have traveled to: Bosnia, Cambodia, China, Chile, Ghana, India, South Korea, Poland, South Africa, and Turkey.  This year, selected students will travel to Russia.

For additional information, contact Dr. Conchita Hickey at University College at 956.326.2134, email chickey@tamiu.edu or visit offices in the Senator Judith Zaffirini Student Success Center, room 223. Information is also available online at http://www.tamiu.edu/spotlight/.