Feb. 25, 2015

Contact Rick Kyte at 608-796-3704 or rlkyte@viterbo.edu

“TRANSFER OF MEMORY” PHOTO EXHIBIT FEATURING HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS LIVING IN MINNESOTA FEATURED AT VITERBO DURING MARCH; OPENING RECEPTION MARCH 5

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Transfer of Memory, a photo exhibit featuring 41 portraits of Holocaust survivors who live or have lived in the Twin Cities, will open with a presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5 in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Recital Hall.

The event is free and open to the public. The exhibit, which is presented by The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, and the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo, will run throughout the month of March.

Transfer of Memory features photographs by David Sherman and text by Lili Chester. The color images and narration are designed to reflect the subject’s “full and fulfilling lives—full of life and vitality—and not defined by victimhood.” The text, taken from interviews of each survivor, accompanies each portrait and provides background and a short history in the survivor’s own words.

“It is my hope and prayer that these images add an important visual proof to accompany the oral testimony,” Sherman said. “The urgency for this project is so clear. The number of living Holocaust survivors is becoming fewer and fewer. It is important for me to ensure that survivors are remembered in a respectful and beautiful way—by face, by name, and by story. Almost 70 years since the end of the war, we are in the midst of a ‘transfer of memory.’ The witness to the horrors, hardships and brutalities of the Holocaust is shifting from those who saw and survived, to a retelling of their testimony.”

The program at the reception will include remarks by Rick Kyte, director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership; Steve Hunegs, executive director of the JCRC; and David Sherman, photographer, and a vocal performance by Viterbo faculty member Karla Hughes featuring a song based on The Diary of Anne Frank.

The exhibit is curated by Laura Zelle and Susie Greenberg and is a collaboration between David Sherman, Lili Chester, and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.transferofmemory.org.

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