Carlsbad Public Library will host Holocaust exhibit

Each year, the library applies for grants to help support our budget. Most of our operations are funded by the City of Carlsbad. We also get some funds from the state by completing a yearly report for grant funds. Also, there are GO Bonds on the ballot every two years, where you can go to the polls and vote to support us. We thank you for your support as well.

I also apply for grants from other organizations. I enjoy writing; this is why I love being able to write a column for you. I even enjoy writing grants, and we’ve received many grants since I’ve become director. Not every application we submit is successful, but if the grant fits the purpose of the library, then I would like to try. We recently applied for the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibition. We had applied for an earlier exhibition from the American Library Association, but we were not chosen. They did provide feedback on why. I was hopeful that with the feedback I could change and tweak this application to give us the best chance possible. Libraries from all over the country applied.

I am honored to announce that we were one of 50 libraries chosen to host this exhibition. Americans and the Holocaust is a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association (ALA) that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. The exhibition will cover wide distances from Hawaii and Alaska to Texas and New Hampshire. Americans and the Holocaust will be on display at the Carlsbad Public Library, along with a series of related special events, from May 2025 to July 2025.

The 1,100-square-foot exhibition examines various aspects of American society: the government, the military, refugee aid organizations, the media and the general public. Drawing on a remarkable collection of primary sources from the 1930s and 1940s, the exhibition tells the stories of Americans who acted in response to Nazism, challenging the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. It provides a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust.

While the exhibition is here, we will be hosting programs and events to build on the content that is included in the exhibition. We hope to bring people outside of our community to visit this. The only other library in New Mexico to receive the exhibition is New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

We are so excited and honored to have been selected as one of the 50 libraries hosting this exhibit. We will make sure to advertise and update you on the programs and when the exhibition is open and ready for you to come view it. I also want to thank the city for allowing us to apply and host this exhibition, the museum for writing a letter of support and helping us with the process, and the many other people in our community who helped make this possible. Pearl of the Pecos, Carlsbad Municipal Schools, Southeastern New Mexico College, and many others all helped write letters of support, have expressed interest in promoting, or helping with the programs.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Carlsbad Public Library will host Holocaust exhibit