2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 96
PERPETUATING A
LEGACY
Like many other
children of survivors,
I grew up knowing little
about my mother’s life
during the Holocaust, but
experiencing its aftereffects. Our
mother, who was born and raised
in Radomsko, Poland, did not talk
about it, and we knew not to ask. We
lived with the nightmares and the
overprotectiveness, the sorrow and
the sadness. Since it was a time when
one was expected to ‘be American,’ her
trauma was masked by everyday life—
albeit with a Polish accent.
The turning point came during an
event at our home when Elie Wiesel
convinced my mother that those who
had gone through the Holocaust were
obligated to teach it. That moment
completely changed her trajectory:
She committed herself to giving
her life meaning by teaching the
Holocaust as a constructive moral
lesson. She became an advisor to
Wiesel in developing the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum
and subsequently helped design its
education programs.
94 l UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM LEGACY OF LIGHT GUARDIANS
Establishing the Dr. Helen N. Fagin
Holocaust Education Endowment
Fund at the Museum made it possible
for me, a person of ordinary means, to
honor my extraordinary mother and to
recognize her lifetime of achievements.
She changed many lives during her
career and takes great pride in the fact
that her initial work underpinned the
Museum’s educational programs. My
hope is that the gift of this named fund
perpetuates the legacy that my mother
truly deserves.
This is my personal way to
acknowledge my mother’s life and her
life work: her personal struggle, her
transition from survivor to educator,
her commitment to Holocaust
education, and her dedication to this
institution she helped create. Choosing
the Museum inextricably ties current
and future generations of our family,
which was profoundly affected by the
Holocaust, to the work that she started
decades ago. This gift will extend and
expand her work into areas that we
can’t even imagine now, and in ways
that she could not have envisioned. It
will honor her impact on the Museum’s
educational programming and
ensure that it continues to transform
generations to come.”