The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presented ‘Americans and the Nazi Threat: What did Northern Californians Know?’ to more than 200 guests on February 1 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco. Participating in the program from left to right are moderator Leah Garchik, Features Columnist at San Francisco Chronicle, and panelists Joanna Wasserman, Education Initiatives Manager, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and John Garvey, Historian and co-author of San Francisco in World War II. While media around the country provided frequent and vivid accounts of rising Nazi brutality in Europe, Americans tended to focus inward on domestic issues during the 1930s and 1940s. Museum and local experts explored headlines, artifacts and other materials from that time period in Northern California, which included dozens of articles recently unearthed in local newspapers. In May the Museum will launch its new exhibition and initiative on Americans and the Holocaust— the latest example of its 25-year legacy of exploring the complex questions Holocaust history raises to stimulate people to think about themselves and the society they live in. – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
