Exhibition Showing: Detroit, Michigan, USA
16th July - 29th August 2006
The first freestanding museum in the United States dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust, The Holocaust Memorial Center, in Detroit Michigan, was the venue for “The Jews of Częstochowa” exhibition in Detroit.
A gathering of 300 people attending the Opening of the Exhibition on Sunday 16th July, with Detroit’s Fox TV Channel 2 journalist, Lila Lazarus (pic right), as Master of Ceremonies. Two days earlier, Lila had interviewed Sigmund Rolat live on her news program.
Other speakers at the Opening included Michigan Congressman Joe Knollenberg, Pawel Pietrasienski, Deputy Consul-General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago, and Ralph J.Gerson, a prominent Detroit area resident and President & Chief Executive Officer of Guardian International Corp. – a American company which has established a manufacturing plant in Częstochowa.
World Society Executive Director, Lea Wolinetz, stressed the responsibility of Second Generation Landsleit to preserve the story of our forebears for future generations. She described the formation of the World Society as a direct outgrowth of this Exhibition and of the website – none of which would have happened without Sigmund Rolat’s energy and commitment.
Dr Thaddeus Radzilowski, Ph.D., President of the PIAST Institute, represented the local Polish-American community.
Others to speak included Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig, from the Holocaust Memorial Center and, of course, our own Sigmund Rolat and Alan Silberstein, sponsors of the exhibition.
The exhibition was prominent in the local media with theDetroit Free Press, the Detroit Jewish News and the Kalamazoo Gazette all running feature articles. Also, the Polish Weekly featured the exhibition in both English and Polish.
Sigmund Rolat appeared on television, interviewed live by both FOX TV and ABC and his documentary, As If It Were Yesterday has been aired on PBS (Detroit Public Television).
for the information from which this page was compiled.