In conjunction with the exhibition, Memorial Library is sponsoring the following events, most of which are open to the public. Some events require advanced registration.
Opening Night Reception
Date/Time: March 19, 2025, 7pm
Location: Southwest Corner of Memorial Library
Speakers: President Edward Inch and Cami Kottke
Audience: Open to the public
Description: An opening reception to officially commemorate the exhibition’s opening. The event will begin with brief opening remarks from President Edward Inch at 7:30pm. The remainder of the time will allow visitors to interact with the exhibition and one another.
Film Screening - The U.S. and the Holocaust by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein and Q&A with Dr. Rebecca Erbelding
Date/Time: March 28, 2025, 9-10:30am
Location: Southwest Corner of Memorial Library
Description: As World War II begins, Americans are united in their disapproval of Nazi brutality but divided on whether to act. Some individuals and organizations work tirelessly to help the refugees escape. Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh and isolationists battle with Roosevelt to try to keep America out of the War. Germany invades the Soviet Union and secretly begins the mass murder of European Jews.
Join us for a 44-minute screening of "The U.S. and the Holocaust" documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein. After the screening, Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, educator and curator/archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will answer questions from the audience.
Viewer Discretion: This film contains mature content and graphic violence.
Film Screening - Surviving Hitler: A Love Story Viewing
Date/Time: April 7, 2025, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Location: Blue Earth County Library Auditorium
Run time: 65 min
Audience: Open to public
Description: As a teenager in Nazi Germany, Jutta is shocked to discover she is Jewish. She joins the German resistance and meets Helmuth Cords, an injured German soldier. The two become sweethearts and ultimately, co-conspirators in the now famous Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler. With the failure of the plot comes a series of harrowing events as the couple and their associates are ruthlessly pursued by the Nazis. It would sound like a pitch for a Hollywood Blockbuster were it not all true. Narrated in vivid detail and supported by never-before-seen 8mm footage shot by one of the central characters, Surviving Hitler: A Love Story is a gripping film that combines simple romantic narrative, tense wartime story, and eye-opening links to monumental historical events.
Film Screening: Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
Date/Time: April 21, 2025, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Location: Blue Earth County Library Auditorium
Run time: 90 min
Audience: Open to public
Description: Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War tells the story of a daring rescue mission that occurred on the precipice of World War II. It tells the previously untold account of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, an American minister and his wife from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who left their children behind in the care of their parish and boldly committed to a life-threatening mission in Europe. Over two dangerous years they helped save scores of imperiled Jews and refugees fleeing the Nazi occupation across Europe.
The 90-minute documentary is directed by Artemis Joukowsky, III and legendary filmmaker Ken Burns serves as Producer, Executive Producer, and Presenter of the project. Tom Hanks and humanitarian Marina Goldman are the featured actors in the film, lending their voices to Waitstill and Martha Sharp. The film premiered September 20, 2016 along with a companion book by the same name.
