Traveling Holocaust Museum exhibit includes Nazi documents, photos

Huge crates that have been sitting in the lower level of the Indiana Memorial Union are scheduled to be opened Friday, revealing a part of history many students might not be aware of.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum traveling exhibit from Washington, D.C., “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945,” will be on display in the IMU until April 25.

“I’m super-excited it’s finally here,” said first year Ph.D. student Phillip Schnarrs, who
first heard of the exhibit from friends and contacted the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services last summer about bringing it to IU.

Sophomore AJ O’Reilly, canvas director for the Union Board, which is also sponsoring the exhibit, joins Schnarrs in his excitement. O’Reilly is finishing what his predecessor started and said he looks forward to seeing student responses.

“It’s going to get a lot of people talking,” he said.

Doug Bauder, coordinator for the GLBT office, said he was happy to respond to Schnarrs’ request this summer. He expects this exhibit to be one of the largest the IMU has ever had.

“It really shows off what we are capable of here at IU with the GLBT Student Support
Services and when students like myself come to the office with ideas of what we want to have on campus that they actually happen,” Schnarrs said.

“It’s not a lecture or a movie,” Bauder said. “It’s just there as a presence as we walk through the Union. I think sometimes we are too oblivious to both what is going on around us and what has happened in history.”

Bauder has already learned new things as the GLBT office prepared to bring the exhibit to IU.

“I had no idea that the Jewish studies program here at IU has some of the best experts on the Holocaust anywhere in the world,” he said.

Bauder said he hopes students learn from what he calls passive education at its best. He pointed to history still being made today, as Uganda works with legislation that threatens to persecute openly gay people.

“I want to make people aware that this kind of violence still appears today,” he said. “This exhibit is a reminder of what we need to learn from history — lessons to learn for all of us I think.”

The exhibit, which was larger than anticipated, will be displayed in three floors of the IMU.

“People can certainly ignore the exhibit if they want,” Bauder said. “But I hope people will read at least some of the displays. I hope the casual passerby will think ‘Why is this here? Why is this important?’ And will answer that question themselves, and if they can’t, I hope they contact the office with literature that can help them find the answers.”