With today’s rise in antisemitism, we direct you to an excellent resource in the Detroit area that documents the horrific events of the Holocaust and what led it to happen.  That resource is Michigan's largest Holocaust museum, the recently renovated Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills.

Columbia alumni are invited to tour the renovated museum with us on Sunday, June 9, and hear a Holocaust survivor—our own Columbia alumni member George Erdstein—talk about the long-term effects of the Holocaust on him and his family.

The Holocaust was the systematic, government-run murder of Europe’s Jews from 1933 to 1945. Using a variety of methods, Nazi Germany, its allies, and collaborators killed some six million Jews—around two-thirds of all European Jews.  

The Zekelman Holocaust Center offers exhibits that include a WWII-era boxcar used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other “undesirables” to concentration camps, and the Viola and Garry Kappy Anne Frank Tree Exhibit and Garden featuring a chestnut tree grown from a sapling gifted to the center from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.  An important element of our tour will be one of the Survivor Talk Sundays, with ours being given by our own George Erdstein.  George was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1938, a few months after the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.  At the time, his parents questioned if and how they could escape.  After Kristallnacht, George’s father was arrested by the Gestapo and tortured.  He was released when George’s mother presented an affidavit from a relative agreeing to sponsor his immigration to the United States.  Later in 1939, George, his mother, and his sister were able to join his father in New York.

Please join us for our tour as we gather no later than 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 9, at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills.  To participate, you must RSVP.*  Cost is $6 per person paid in advance. 

WHEN:  Sunday, June 9.  Gather at 11:30 a.m.  Welcome and Orientation at 11:45 a.m.  Survivor Talk at noon.  Docent-Led Tour from 1 to 2 p.m.

WHERE:  Zekelman Holocaust Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334.  The Center is on the west side of Orchard Lake Road north of Twelve Mile Road.

COST:  $6 per person paid in advance. 

PARKING:  Free parking is available.  Park on the north side of the building and use the north entrance

* Your RSVP will confirm your consent and authorization for the center and those it authorizes to use and reproduce any photos or videos of you for any purpose without compensation to you.