The World Must Know; The History of the Holocaust as Told in The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. First Edition [stated] First Paperback Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. Arnold Kramer (Editor of photographs). The format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11 inches. xv, [1], 240 pages. Minor cover wear and soiling noted. This was published to coincide with the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April, 1993. This volume commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, using photographs of the museum's artifacts to document the human stories. The contents include From the Director; Introduction, The Nazi Assault; The Holocaust; The Last Chapter; Afterword; Bibliographical Note; About the Museum; and Index. US Holocaust Memorial Museum ticket stub from November 18, 1994 laid in. The World Must Know depicts the evolution of the Holocaust comprehensively, as it is presented in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Museum honors the six-million Jews and millions of other victims of the Nazis during World War II a memorial to the past and a living reminder of the moral obligations of societies. The World Must Know documents the compelling human stories of the Holocaust as told in the Museum's renowned Permanent Exhibition. "The World Must Know by Michael Berenbaum is a skillfully organized and clearly told account of the German Holocaust that consumed, with unparalleled malevolence, six million Jews and millions of innocent others Protestants, Catholics, Poles, Russians, Gypsies, the handicapped, and so many others, adults and children. This ... vital guide through the unique corridors of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum... merits the widest of audiences." Chaim Potok, author of The Chosen and The Promise. On November 1, 1978, President Jimmy Carter established the President's Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel, a prominent author, activist, and Holocaust survivor. Its mandate was to investigate the creation and maintenance of a memorial to victims of the Holocaust and an appropriate annual commemoration to them. The mandate was a joint effort of Wiesel and Richard Krieger (the original papers are on display at the Jimmy Carter Museum). On September 27, 1979, the Commission presented its report to the President, recommending the establishment of a national Holocaust memorial museum in Washington, D.C., with three main components: a national museum/memorial, an educational foundation, and a Committee on Conscience. After a unanimous vote by the United States Congress in 1980 to establish the museum, the federal government made available 1.9 acres of land adjacent to the Washington Monument for construction. Under the founding director Richard Krieger, and subsequent director Jeshajahu Weinberg and chairman Miles Lerman, nearly $190 million was raised from private sources for building design, artifact acquisition, and exhibition creation. In October 1988, President Ronald Reagan helped lay the cornerstone of the building, designed by architect James Ingo Freed. Dedication ceremonies on April 22, 1993, included speeches by American President Bill Clinton, Israeli President Chaim Herzog, Chairman Harvey Meyerhoff, and Elie Wiesel. On April 26, 1993, the museum opened to the general public. Its first visitor was the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. It is dedicated to helping leaders and citizens of the world confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy. In 2008, the museum had an operating budget of $120.6 million. a staff of about 400 employees, 125 contractors, 650 volunteers, 91 Holocaust survivors, and 175,000 members. It had local offices in New York City, Boston, Boca Raton, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. Since its dedication on April 22, 1993, the museum has had nearly 40 million visitors, including more than 10 million school children, 99 heads of state, and more than 3,500 foreign officials from over 211 countries and territories. The museum's visitors came from all over the world, and less than 10 percent are Jewish. In 2008, its website had 25 million visits, from an average of 100 countries daily. Thirty-five percent of these visits were from outside the United States. The USHMM's collections contain more than 12,750 artifacts, 49 million pages of archival documents, 85,000 historical photographs, a list of over 200,000 registered survivors and their families, 1,000 hours of archival footage, 93,000 library items, and 9,000 oral history testimonies. It also has teacher fellows in every state in the United States and, since 1994, almost 400 university fellows from 26 countries. Researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have documented 42,500 ghettos and concentration camps created by the Nazis throughout German-controlled areas of Europe from 1933 to 1945. The museum is located geographically in the same cluster as the Smithsonian museums.