Bob Asmussen: Warsaw Ghetto survivor brings exhibit to area to promote education on Holocaust

May 9—URBANA — Bill Gingold's garage is filled with long cardboard boxes. Forty of them, to be exact, weighing a total of about 1,000 pounds.

On Mother's Day, with the help of his daughter Tamara and grandkids, Gingold will open the boxes to unveil "Courage to Remember."

The traveling Holocaust exhibit will be on display from May 15-26 at the Champaign-Urbana Elks Lodge, 903 N. Dunlap Ave., Savoy.

Gingold, who survived the Warsaw Ghetto, is encouraging the public to visit. All are welcome.

"One of my goals is educate people as much as we can about the Holocaust specifically, but in general, about any kind of genocide or where people intentionally hurt other people," the 83-year-old said.

There will be plenty of chances to learn from the exhibit. Hours will vary, but most days, it will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Tours are available for groups and schools, grades 5-12 only. Contact Brian Kahn for appointments and questions at briankah@uis.edu or call 217-369-5039.

"The second day it's open, I already have four different classrooms coming to see the exhibit," Kahn said. "It's not just for schools. It is for everybody."

A long road

The exhibit was created by the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

How it ended up on display in East Central Illinois is the result of Gingold's efforts and diligence.

Gingold first learned about the exhibit during an interview in Chicago years ago. He looked it up online and found out about its rich history, which goes back three decades.

"It just struck me that I wanted to learn more about it because that might be another vehicle to educate people," Gingold said.

The well-traveled exhibit has been to more than 50 countries and been seen by millions. But COVID-19 halted it, and it was put in storage in Chicago.

Gingold contacted the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Chicago office and asked if he could share the exhibit downstate.

"They were very receptive to it," Gingold said. "They said 'Let us know when you want to come and pick it up. And we'll let you have it for an extended period of time.'"

Featured Local Savings

Gingold isn't sure exactly how long it will be here. His plan is to rotate the exhibit among communities besides C-U.

The title, "Courage to Remember," is a big part of what Gingold stresses when he talks about the Holocaust.

"You need to learn to never forget what people do to other people for a variety of reasons," he said.

Gingold quotes a passage from a 1979 book by Milan Kundera:

"The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long, the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster."

Gingold said he takes those powerful words to heart: "That quote sticks with me a lot."

His own experiences and what his family endured showed Gingold "learning is something that no one can take away from you. They can take away all your possessions. They can even destroy you. But learning that you get, base it on factual information, no one can remove that from you."

His aim is to help develop positive traits: compassion, kindness, social responsibility, cooperation and courage from learning.

"That's why I spend a lot of time with the kids at school," he said. "I'm interested in responding to their questions and correcting their misperception and the lack of factual information."

Helping hands

Gingold and Kahn, who is co-chair of the Holocaust Education Center, appreciate the support from the Elks and their offer to share their space for free. There is no admission fee to view the exhibit.

Gingold is also receiving help from the C-U Jewish Federation's Holocaust Education Center.

Gingold and Kahn are part of a volunteer group that has been working since the mid-1990s to bring resources to local teachers to meet the state mandate of teaching the Holocaust.

"That's one of our missions," Kahn said. "It continues to be important. We are still writing about and researching the Holocaust. It's never going to stop. More information comes out every year by scholars."

The mandate from the state now includes other genocides.

"These things are still happening all over the world, and we don't study them enough," said Kahn, a retired middle school teacher (mostly in Urbana) who also spent seven years on the faculty at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

Gingold worked for 30 years at the UI as a professor of family medicine and as a researcher.