Education about Holocaust gets place at UMaine. Center to tell state's role in liberation

[Ian David]

By Glenn Adams, Associated Press | April 2, 2007

AUGUSTA, Maine -- With a succession of four curved rooflines arching toward the southern sky before ending abruptly with walls of glass, the architecture is striking. But inside the new home of Maine's Holocaust and Human Rights Center, visitors may find what they see and hear even more moving.


Images of survivors of the Nazi horrors and their liberators will appear on four screens to tell stories of what they experienced during those dark days. As a backdrop to their words, ambient sounds from the death camps will fill the air.

Visitors will see a letter from a Maine soldier to his sweetheart in Waterville describing what he saw as he became one of the first Americans to liberate the death camps. Outside, a small plot of ground will hold earth from Auschwitz-Birkenau, following a ceremony on April 15, international Holocaust Remembrance Day.

For years, mementos, tapes, and other material pertaining to Mainers who survived or helped to liberate the concentration camps were scattered in different locations. Tapes were housed in the state library. Other items wound up in Sharon Nichols's home.


A letter from a Maine soldier to his girlfriend will be displayed. (ROBERT F. BUKATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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