202: Holocaust Prologue with US Holocaust Memorial Museum Director, Sara J. Bloomfield

Summary

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History That Doesn't Suck

Episode 202: Holocaust Prologue with US Holocaust Memorial Museum Director, Sara J. Bloomfield

Release Date: March 30, 2026
Host: Professor Greg Jackson
Guest: Sara J. Bloomfield (Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Co-host/Editor: Riley Neubauer

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Overview of the Episode

This special “prologue” episode sets the stage for a multi-episode exploration of the Holocaust, focusing on why Holocaust memory and education matter especially in the context of American democracy. Professor Greg Jackson is joined by executive editor Riley Neubauer and features an in-depth interview with Sara J. Bloomfield, the Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). The discussion traverses the purpose of the museum, the challenges of Holocaust education as survivor generations fade, and the enduring relevance of Holocaust history for Americans today.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Framing the Series & Episode Purpose

• Contextual Challenges of WWII Storytelling

  • Greg and Riley discuss their methodology for teaching WWII on the podcast, intentionally weaving together the European and Pacific theaters, rather than separating them by geography, to give a coherent American perspective.
  • The current narrative is shifting from the Pacific (Pacific theater in US memory post-Pearl Harbor) to the European theater and Holocaust.

• Significance of the Holocaust Prologue

  • The Holocaust becomes more prominent in American consciousness as the war progresses (1942–43), but most Americans, especially early in the war, are more focused on Japan’s attack and the Pacific.

  Key Quote:

  "At this point in the war where we are at is 1942 going into 1943...for Americans at that point it’s really more about the Pacific. Japan's the one that carried out this sneak attack, the surprise attack that devastated Pearl Harbor. And so that’s a shift that is going to happen—the more European focus coming to bear..."
  — Greg Jackson (08:23)

2. Introducing Sara J. Bloomfield

• Personal Connections

  • Riley shares her family's deep ties to the Museum: her great-grandfather helped found it, and Sara knew him well. This was instrumental in securing Sara’s rare podcast appearance.

  Key Quote:

  "I'm incredibly honored that she decided to take the leap and be on her first ever podcast and that we're able to bring this conversation to you." — Riley Neubauer (11:26)

3. Why a Holocaust Museum in America? [15:50–17:13]

• Democracy at the Core

  • Bloomfield argues that democracy is the foundational reason for placing the Holocaust Museum in the U.S. capital. The implication: even advanced democracies can devolve into tyranny, which is a permanent lesson for Americans.

  Key Quote:

  "There’s just one word that explains why there is a Holocaust museum in our nation's capital, and that word is democracy...before the Nazis came to power, Germany was an advanced, educated nation with a democratic constitution...And yet, and yet..."
  — Sara Bloomfield (15:58)

• Federal Partnership, Survivor Involvement

  • Bloomfield details how the museum was established under President Carter, the importance of public/private partnership, and high engagement from non-Jewish visitors (95% of visitors).

4. Telling the Story: Challenges & Methodology [20:35–25:42]

• Personalization & Human Connection

  • Survivor voices and physical artifacts (rail cars, shoes, barracks) remain crucial for creating bonds between today’s Americans and Holocaust victims.
  • As survivors dwindle, focus shifts to artifacts’ authenticity and efforts to convey the enormity of the event.

• Audience Engagement Evolving

  • Many visitors today do not see themselves as perpetrators or victims; they want to understand the role of “ordinary people” and the impact of collaboration and bystander silence.

  Key Quote:

  "The Holocaust would not have been possible without the collaboration of many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and the silence of millions..."
  — Sara Bloomfield (22:13)

• Narrative Power vs. Argument

  • Refers to a Richard Powers quote (via Ken Burns):

    "The best arguments in the world can't change a single mind. The only thing that can do that is a great story." (25:35)

5. American Connections to the Holocaust [26:22–31:13]

• American Roles: Before, During, After

  • Emphasis on US soldiers liberating camps, Americans who acted to rescue Jews, and survivor immigration post-war.
  • Survivor reflections on the meaning of America underscore its unique promise of liberty and equality.

  Key Quote:

  "America was the first country where Jews could be both Jewish and American. It's such a novel idea in history..."
  — Sara Bloomfield (29:12)

• Memorializing Democracy

  • The museum’s location, quotes from Washington and Jefferson at the entrance, and architectural dialogue with DC’s founding fathers' monuments frame the Holocaust as a warning and lesson within America’s democratic experiment.

6. Addressing Ignorance and Antisemitism [34:23–41:12]

• "Americans and the Holocaust" Exhibit

  • Exhibition focuses on what Americans knew during the Holocaust and how they responded: polling data reveal shockingly high antisemitism, with much of the public blaming Jews for their persecution or opposing refugee resettlement.
  • Even after the war, only 5% of Americans supported admitting Jewish refugees.

  Key Quote:

  "Two out of three Americans blame the Jews for their own persecution...After the war...only 5% said, let them in."
  — Sara Bloomfield (34:23–36:15)

• Contemporary Relevance

  • Bloomfield notes that US antisemitism is at "unprecedented levels...much higher than it was then."
  • She and Greg agree on the dire state of historical literacy and the urgency of active history education.

  Key Quote:

  "To be a responsible citizen, you just have to know about where you’ve been in order to think about and shape your future."
  — Sara Bloomfield (38:00)

7. Museum's Educational Approach for Younger Generations [39:44–41:12]

• Responding to Modern Challenges

  • USHMM is developing resources to help teachers connect the Holocaust to anti-propaganda and media literacy today.
  • Focus on root causes (antisemitism, conspiracy theories, ethnonationalism) rather than only events. Teachers are showing strong interest in professional development.

  Key Quote:

  "We've developed a module using Nazi propaganda posters and help teachers teach students...We want students to be more discerning consumers..."
  — Sara Bloomfield (40:04)

8. Guidance for Listeners: How to Approach Holocaust History [41:47–45:06]

• Historical Roots, Not Meteorites

  • Bloomfield cautions against viewing the Holocaust as a singular eruption; its origins stretch deep into European history—technology, social anxiety, World War I, nationalism, and racism set the stage.
  • The forthcoming new exhibit will begin in Europe, 1900 to show the context leading up to Nazi genocide.

  Key Quote:

  "These events all have deep roots...History teaches us that we always look for simple answers to complex questions."
  — Sara Bloomfield (41:47–44:25)

9. Balancing Horror and Humanity: How to Tell the Story [45:06–49:35]

• Scale and Speed

  • Public often underestimates both the scale and rapidity: 4 million Jews murdered in a few years; by D-Day, over 5 million dead.
  • Personal stories: museum’s "Tower of Faces," artifacts (e.g., letters thrown from trains) are used to anchor statistical magnitude in individual experience.

  Key Quotes:

  "This wasn’t 6 million statistics. This is 6 million individual murders."
  — Sara Bloomfield (46:32)
  "Everybody walks in that room and goes, ‘Oh.’ Because everybody can identify with the individuality and the humanity of just other human beings that are just like them."
  — Sara Bloomfield (47:36)

• Memorable Moment

  • A student visitor comments, after leaving the museum:

    "I don't think any of us expected to learn about humanity." — Mandy from Iowa City (47:56)

10. Final Thoughts & Call to Action

• Bloomfield emphasizes that studying the Holocaust is “looking at ourselves in the mirror” and hopes visitors and listeners see themselves in the story and recognize their role in shaping the future.

  Key Quote:

  “History is really, really looking at ourselves in the mirror...see themselves in that story and see themselves in the future story that they can write as citizens.”
  — Sara Bloomfield (50:13)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• [15:58] Sara Bloomfield: “There’s just one word that explains why there is a Holocaust museum in our nation's capital, and that word is democracy.”
• [18:53] Sara Bloomfield, quoting Eisenhower’s D-Day speech: “Soldiers, sailors and airmen, the eyes of the world are upon you...You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny...and security for ourselves in a free world.”
• [22:13] Sara Bloomfield: “The Holocaust would not have been possible without the collaboration of many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and the silence of millions of ordinary people.”
• [25:35] Sara Bloomfield (via Richard Powers): “The best arguments in the world won't change a single mind. The only thing that can do that is a great story.”
• [29:12] Sara Bloomfield: “America was the first country where Jews could be both Jewish and American. It's such a novel idea in history...”
• [34:23] Sara Bloomfield: “In 1938...two out of three Americans blame the Jews for their own persecution.”
• [36:12] Sara Bloomfield: “Even after the war...only 5% said, let them in.”
• [38:00] Sara Bloomfield: “To be a responsible citizen, you just have to know about where you’ve been in order to think about and shape your future.”
• [41:47] Sara Bloomfield: “Great events...like the Holocaust and World War II, they're not meteorites that came down from the sky...These events all have deep roots.”
• [46:32] Sara Bloomfield: "This wasn’t 6 million statistics. This is 6 million individual murders."
• [47:56] Sara Bloomfield, quoting a visitor: “I don't think any of us expected to learn about humanity.”
• [50:13] Sara Bloomfield: “History is really, really looking at ourselves in the mirror...see themselves in that story and see themselves in the future story that they can write as citizens.”

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Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Time | |--------------------------------------------|----------| | Introduction/contextual banter | 03:19 | | Explaining HTDS’s WWII narrative approach | 04:07 | | Introducing Sara J. Bloomfield | 15:39 | | Why the museum exists in America | 15:50 | | Museum’s formation and mission | 17:13 | | Value of survivor voices/artifacts | 20:35 | | Visitor engagement and “ordinary people” | 22:13 | | The power of narrative storytelling | 25:29 | | American memory and survivor immigration | 26:22 | | Democracy and American values | 29:12 | | “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit | 34:23 | | Holocaust ignorance and denial today | 38:00 | | Museum education in the social media era | 39:44 | | Advice for listeners and historical roots | 41:47 | | Grappling with narrative scale/humanity | 45:06 | | Closing thoughts | 50:11 |

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Takeaways for New Listeners

• The Holocaust is not just a Jewish or European story; its memory is fundamental to understanding democracy, citizenship, and human rights in America.
• Museums must blend deeply personal survivor stories with sobering facts to overcome historical amnesia and denial.
• The United States, despite its flaws, is singular in the opportunities and guarantees it extended to survivors and minorities—a lesson that is still urgently relevant.
• Individual and collective choices matter; history is the mirror reflecting both our failures and our potential.
• Facing the Holocaust honestly can (and should) challenge us to renew our democratic commitments and vigilance against tyranny—not just “then,” but now.

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If you haven’t listened to the episode, this summary captures its narrative drive, emotional power, and educational depth—inviting you to engage further with upcoming detailed Holocaust episodes.

Transcript

[Greg Jackson]

History that Doesn't Suck is sponsored by vistaprint. You may have heard me talk about our touring live show. Well, that's because it's an important extension of this podcast and I'm very proud of it and how it allows us to connect with listeners in person on the road. Every detail of these events is important, from what you see on stage to what you encounter at the venue, right down to the custom tablecloth we printed with vistaprint. Seeing our HTDS logo on the lobby table tells you you're not only in the right place, but you but that you're with a community of fans who love stories from history. Vistaprint makes preparing for an event easy from start to finish. From printed table covers, signs, postcards and swag, vistaprint has everything you need to look polished and professional at your next event. Vistaprint makes it simple to take that first idea and expand it. And vistaprint's design tools and human support help you bring those ideas to life, no matter your experience or your budget. There's a reason over a million people trust Vistaprint for their small business print needs Vistaprint print your possible right now new customers get 20% off with code [e-mail] Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway, give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.

[Greg Jackson]

See full [e-mail] My friends, it's Professor Jackson. I know you hear me from time to time promoting live shows or the HTDS membership program and so forth. But what sounds like self promotion is actually much more about you, the listeners. I started this podcast to share my passion for history and to make learning history, not suck. Along the way, a community of informed citizens coalesced and that makes me genuinely happy. If you haven't heard, I've been working on a book for two years and I wanted to do something different, something special to celebrate with the community of listeners that inspired me to write the book in the first place. So to celebrate its publication, we're planning the ultimate book Club meeting on a Caribbean cruise May 18th through the 22nd, and I'd love for you to join me. Each guest will get an advanced signed copy of my book. I'll perform my live show, we'll record a live podcast, and much more. I know it's not for everyone, so there are only a few cabins available. If you're interested in joining me and this HTDS community for some fun fellowship and learning at sea, then go to htdscruise.com that's htdscruise.com and use the code HTDS for $100 off, hope to have you aboard. If it's not for you, don't worry. We're playing some other events. Thanks for being a listener, truly. Hello, my friends, and welcome to what we're going to call a prologue episode of history that doesn't suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'm pleased to be joined by my executive editor, Riley Neubauer.

[Riley Neubauer]

Hey, everyone. It's exciting to be here.

[Greg Jackson]

So today we are going to have what I think is just a real honor of an interview. We'll be speaking with the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sarah Bloomfield. We'll get to her intro and just how unique of an opportunity this truly is. But before we dive into setting up the Holocaust, which is the real point of this episode, I do want to take just one second and kind of epilogue a little bit to use that as a verb in the HTDS sense. Right. On World War II, because we are so deep into this thing and yet we are not even close to being through it. This is just such a massive, massive tapestry with so many things to weave together.

[Riley Neubauer]

It is. It's a lot of ground. And it's also we've been bouncing back and forth geographically, which I think we decided to do very intentionally, if you want to talk more about that. But I'm sure as a listener, it might get a little bit chaotic sometimes if we're in Germany in one episode and then all the way across the world in Japan in another.

[Greg Jackson]

Yes. And, you know, it's the same thing that I've felt in the classroom teaching World War II my entire career as a university professor. You have to make a choice between whether it is frustrating to miss some context as you stick to one theater and just plow through the Pacific and then plow through Europe or vice versa. Right. Because you're missing crucial context. You don't get to Europe without Pearl harbor from the American perspective. Right. And that's exactly what we're about here, obviously, on htds, so. Or you move chronologically and it does mean that there's a little bit of a pause, you know, in these stories. To me, the latter is the better course. I think it's important to have that context. And we are very intentionally grouping together several pieces of an episode. I'm very opposed to one episode in Europe, one episode in the Pacific, one episode in Europe. That's just too jarring. But I would like to point out for listeners that if you want to get a geographical take, you can do that. Just jump around on your episodes. World War I was so much easier. We.

[Riley Neubauer]

Well, that's cause America didn't enter until far later into the war.

[Greg Jackson]

I know, I know. And so it also led us. I'm gonna say chi. It's the wrong verb, but.

[Riley Neubauer]

But it works here.

[Greg Jackson]

Yeah, yeah. Being able to do, first of all, one episode, which I very much enjoy. And I confess that it was one of the easier episodes to do because it was. Obviously, I don't have sound design and the same rich level of detailed storytelling that I can do in the classroom, but that episode, I want to say that was 128. Forgive me if I misrecall a number, but being able to just lay out 99 years of causes, building from Napoleon to the start of the war, and then doing an episode where it was, hey, here are the highlights of World War I for the first 75% of the conflict. Right. It's the right thing to do when you're giving the US experience in World War I. But yeah, it kind of feels like cheating. You get to fast forward basically to the end, and then you're just following this one expeditionary force in Europe that's barely hitting big numbers as the war ends. In a way as important as that American effort was to change in the tide of the war. Whereas here we're following two massive US forces literally on opposite sides of the globe. And I do want to be careful, or rather, I'll say I've been very mindful, as I am in the classroom when I teach World War II. I don't want to see the Pacific get shortchanged. I love the European side. As weird as it always is, I know everyone understands what a historian means, and they're like, I love the history of this war. It's not condoning war, hate war, but. Right. The gripping stories, the significance of how the world changes as a result. But so many Americans, so many servicemen bled and died in the Pacific. I don't want to throw too big of a blanket over this, but it's so often the case that World War II gets reduced to a European focus and I just don't want to omit Skip, cut out the very real sacrifices that happen in the Pacific. So trying to make sure we do justice to all of it, it means we're going to keep changing gears every. Every few episodes. But you can always go back and listen just to whichever theater you want.

[Riley Neubauer]

I think it's a really good point, especially given the context. I mean, there's a lot that we need to understand about the state of the world before and in the early years of World War II in order to better understand the American experience during it. And I think as we planned out these episodes, we were very keenly aware of how to connect these big world political entities. Isn't the right word, but kind of the political changes in the world to

[Greg Jackson]

the United States entities works because we're going for something even larger in terms of than even nation state. No, I think that's fine. And one other point I'd like to drive home is that I think it's important for us to remember while in hindsight World War II becomes very European centric. I mean like you Say World War II, your average person thinks about Nazis. They do not think about Imperial Japan. But at this point in the war where we are at is 1942 going into 1943, I think it's crucial to remember that for Americans at that point it's really more about the Pacific. Japan's the one that carried out this sneak attack, the surprise attack that devastated Pearl Harbor. And so that's a shift that is going to happen. The more European focus coming to bear. But it was the cold opened one of our episodes right before American Boots ever set foot foot in Northern Ireland to then prepare for being deployed to North Africa, which we kind of throw in as like this is all the European theater. But you know, technically we're still not in Europe. American boys have been bleeding and dying in the Pacific for quite a long time. So that's what Americans really latch onto. This Europe feels like an add on at first. So now as we return to the Holocaust. So I'll again emphasize that I very much encourage anyone who feels rusty on it to revisit episode 185, get that early Holocaust locked back into your head and then dive into these next few episodes. But as we return, we know that again the American mind is kind of more on the Pacific as Europe starts to play out in 42, 43 as word of the Holocaust. We'll get to that in a future episode. But Word of the Holocaust does get to the United States well before the end of the war.

[Riley Neubauer]

I think the point about the Holocaust reaching the United States kind of midway through the war is really important and something to look out for. I think it's in episode 203 is the one after this little sneak peek.

[Greg Jackson]

Yeah. And it's. Well, yeah, we've got some heavy episodes. I think that's perhaps the best thing to leave it on as we now let Sarah set us up to prologue the Holocaust. Now, she. She doesn't do interviews like this. She's never been on a podcast. But, Riley, you made that happen. Do you mind telling the tale? How's this happening?

[Riley Neubauer]

Of course. So something you'll hear at the end of these next few episodes is that my great grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and so we've had a very close family relationship with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. My great grandpa, Miles Lerman, helped found the museum, and so Sara knew him very well. And when Greg and I were talking about kind of the most important conversations and themes that we wanted to talk about before the Holocaust, Sarah's name came to mind just because she would be able to tell HETS listeners about the American impact of the Holocaust and how Americans saw themselves within this larger global narrative. And so I'm incredibly honored that she decided to take the leap and be on her first ever podcast and that we're able to bring this conversation to you. It really means a lot to me personally and also in our HTDS universe.

[Greg Jackson]

You know, I'm just an observer on those emails as they were exchanged. Riley, it's touching. I appreciate that she's willing to do this. I appreciate you reaching out to her, but the connection was evident in the exchange, if that's okay for me to say that much, you know, publicly. So thank you again to you, Riley. Our conversation will continue in just a moment, and we'll be joined by Sarah J. Bloomfield, director of the United States State's Holocaust Memorial Museum. History that doesn't suck is supported by Quince. I've learned that the best wardrobe isn't huge, it's smart. Quince nails it with versatile, lightweight cashmere sweaters, Mongolian cashmere polos, linen bottoms, and tees in 100% Pima cotton or European linen pieces you'll actually wear season after season. Spring is coming, but it's still a bit chilly, so I'm still rocking the cardigan sweater I got from Quince this winter, frankly, almost daily. I do love it that much. And it's not a stuffy professor's cardigan. It's a stylish update that is soft and warm from 100% organic cotton. Quince works directly with top factories, cutting out the middleman so you pay for quality, not retail hype. Everything is built to last. Stop overcomplicating your wardrobe. You just need the pieces that work over and over. Right now. Go to quints.com htds for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to build your wardrobe and love it and you will. Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to q u I nce.com htds for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com htds it's 6:00pm on a Tuesday.

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[Greg Jackson]

for details I'm Brian, I work at United Healthcare.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

So Brian, why do you care?

[Greg Jackson]

I care because I don't want to leave anybody behind. I oversee one of the biggest resource center in UnitedHealthcare. I see people walking in my office every day just like my parents. They have no idea about the healthcare. I feel like they are my uncles, aunties. I treated people like family. I'm Brian and I'm committed to care. So we are honored to be joined by the Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sarah J. Bloomfield. Sarah also serves on the International Auschwitz Council and International Treblinka Council, has been named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French Republic and is a recipient of the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. Sarah and I are joined by HTDS Executive editor Riley Neubauer. And with that, Sarah, thanks for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you here.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

[Riley Neubauer]

I think, to begin, we'd like to ask perhaps the obvious question, which is why does a Holocaust Memorial museum exist in the United States?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

It is a great and obvious question, and I'm really glad you asked it. And I think there's just one word that explains why there is a Holocaust museum and our nation's capital, and that word is democracy. Because if you look at history, you can remember that before the Nazis came to power, Germany was an advanced, educated nation with a democratic constitution, a rule of law, free speech, more Nobel Prizes than any other country, among the most respected Christian theologians in the world. And yet, and yet, and yet. And I think there's another point here that in defeating Nazi Germany, our nation protected our own democracy. And that's why it's so fitting that the museum stands between the monuments to Jefferson and Washington and that our visitors see quotes from each of these founding fathers at our entrance. So that's the premise behind the idea that was started under President Carter's administration.

[Greg Jackson]

Sarah, that's a fantastic point in how remembering the Holocaust is so vital to democracy. Do you mind going any deeper on the relationship between the museum and the federal government? How does some of that come to bear in your day to day?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Well, let me just, if it's okay, if I could just give you a background about how it was set up under President Carter. He asked Elie Wiesel to chair a commission to study the idea of. It really began as a memorial. Should there be a national memorial to the Holocaust? And the commission said, well, given the history of the Weimar Republic and what happened under Nazism and America's role in defeating Nazism, it should really be an educational institution, because memory alone is not enough. And so Congress mandated that we raise private funds for and build the museum itself. And it's a partnership between Congress and Holocaust survivors throughout the country that really built this institution. And, you know, one of the things that I think there was a concern in the beginning was, you know, would Americans from all different backgrounds, would non Jews see this as relevant to them? And we found in our opening year, of course, that was the case and has been true ever since. Our visitors are 95% non Jewish. And they all come out of the museum finding it, from what we can tell, deeply meaningful. And they see it as a story of history and a story of humanity

[Greg Jackson]

that speaks to my own personal experience. One of my earliest memories in life was going to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, not your DC Location. But it was very poignant and stuck with me. And I asked my mom as well this morning, just got thinking, why did you take me? For her, this is just a part of the human story, the American story, an important thing that she wanted her kids to understand.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

You know, Eisenhower, I've been thinking a lot about what he said to our troops before the D Day invasion, because it's incredibly powerful words. He said, soldiers, sailors and airmen, the eyes of the world are upon you. The hope is and prayers of liberty. Loving people everywhere march with you. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. And, of course, who knew if it was gonna be a success or not? But he was an extraordinary leader. And by the way, I'm sitting here in my office that's right next to the museum, looking over the Eisenhower Plaza.

[Greg Jackson]

I'm jealous. I'll leave it at that. What a great place for you to spend your days.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

It is. We just had six World War II veterans visit last week.

[Riley Neubauer]

That sounds incredible. And I think one of the things, especially about the museum, that has always struck me is how important the educational awareness and the ties to building human connections are. Right. It seems like a lot of what you do is you connect visitors to real human beings who lived during the Holocaust. And in this day and age, I feel like people of my generation and of other generations have fewer personal ties to an experience with the material. And so I'm wondering, as we move kind of further away from people who lived through these experiences and are direct descendants, how and if you've altered any of your educational strategy or the programming that you do to appeal to these younger generations who might not necessarily have that intimate knowledge, given that your focus is really on building these human connections.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

So that's a great question. And I would say, first of all, anything we do that features Holocaust survivors, whether having one sitting in the building to talk to visitors or getting short videos from them online, is hugely successful even among teenagers in America. And we've done some research on this, and we found that teenagers love authenticity, and they consider survivors really authentic. So it's wonderful that they respond so well to them so you know about that authenticity, the other thing, of course. And we know that the survivor population is declining. The last survey I saw, there are only 196,000 left in the world and about 31,000 in the US and with that reality, what's the other piece of authenticity that we have? And that's our artifacts that show really the reality of what happened when you don't have those voices. And we know from doing visitor research that our visitors, when they come away from the museum, the things they talk about most are saying things like, oh, my gosh, I saw the real railroad car, the real barracks, the real shoes. That's what they remember. And they connect with the victims when they. What was it like to wear those shoes, to be in that barracks, to be in that rail car? So we do try to emphasize survivor voices and artifacts wherever we can to create those connections. But I'd like to say something else about this. We've done a lot of testing in recent years from our visitors about what do they want more out of in the exhibition. And what they say to us is, because they're not Jewish, is, well, I don't really see myself here. I'm not a Nazi. Of course, no one thinks of themselves as a Nazi, and I'm not Jewish, so I'm not a victim. I wanna know what ordinary people in Germany and across Europe did during the Holocaust. And that's great, because we want to answer that question. We want them to think about that, because the truth is the Holocaust would not have been possible without the collaboration of many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and the silence of millions of ordinary people. And we want our visitors to know about that and to know that a few ordinary people, very few, did make other choices and helped the victims. And we want our visitor to think about the choices they make in the world today.

[Greg Jackson]

So you're touching on. I think this is a challenge that every historian, whether it's public history, we're talking about museums, we're talking about academics writing monographs. There's this grappling with the multifaceted nature of any history. So in this instance, there are the Nazis, the clear perpetrators, the Jews, the clear victims. And then, as you're just saying, all those who silently let things happen or silently pushed back. And yet there's nothing more powerful than storytelling. Storytelling is what really brings someone in to a history and helps them to see themselves or to relate and connect to the past and realize these aren't just stuffy names on paper, but these were people who lived and Felt the same fears and trepidations and hopes and dreams that we all do today. What myriad of challenges are you constantly facing thinking through all of that?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Okay, so you asked a really wonderful question about how we approach this. And many museums are based on their objects. You come to see a dinosaur or a Picasso here. You come to not see things necessarily, but to learn about a story. And we are a narrative based museum, and our artifacts are there to help support the story. I don't know if you know this great quote I heard Ken Burns refer to it. It's from the author, Richard Powers. Some like the best arguments in the world can't change a single mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story. And the museum has one of the world's most powerful stories. And we're always asking ourselves, how can we tell it better so that it resonates with our visitors and particularly with young people? And one of the changes we're making to the way we tell our story, it's very much focused on what happened during the Holocaust. And we need to add to that story how and why it happened and who made it happen. Because if we want people to think about the choices that were possible then and the choices they make today, and what are their own roles and responsibilities in society and do critical thinking, we really need to add that how and why and who aspect of the story.

[Greg Jackson]

There's no better answer than that. Who is it that said that it's Richard Powers. Richard Powers.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

The best arguments in the world won't change a single mind. The only thing that can do that is a great story.

[Riley Neubauer]

I completely agree with you, especially since we've had Ken on as a guest in previous HGDS episodes, which is always a nice connection. But I think one of the really interesting things I've picked up on from what you were saying is that a lot of the narratives and the stories you're telling are ones that really appeal to this American audience. The Holocaust didn't take place on American soil, but the United States has adopted this memory of the Holocaust into our collective memory and our national story. And I'm wondering if you might have any inclination as to why this might be and how you're trying to combine the American story with the larger narrative of the Holocaust.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Well, I'd say a couple of things about that. First of all, we do, as I said before, we emphasize every American connection to the history. So the liberation of the camps and fighting the Nazis and ending World War II is obviously the most important one. But there are Also wonderful stories about Americans who tried to rescue Jews during the Holocaust in various ways. And of course, the big story about how after the war, so many survivors came to America to rebuild their lives. And with the observation this year, the commemoration of America's 250th, we are showcasing all of these aspects of America's connection to the Holocaust. To share with you some of the quotes about our survivors, when we asked some of them, like, what does America mean to you? One of them said, I knew this is a country that I'll have all the opportunities, just simple. Another said, when I came to Miami, I kissed the ground in Poland and Germany. I couldn't speak what I wanted to say. Here. You have a right to scream and yell and somebody will listen to you. This is freedom. And I really think, you know, our survivors remind us, I get to work with these people every day. It's the privilege of a lifetime. But they are always reminding me, don't ever take for granted the freedoms and opportunities this country offers. Don't ever forget this is a very unique country, even with all its flaws, that there is no place like it. They just love America.

[Greg Jackson]

Amen. Look, the story of the United States is rich and complex, and it has its warts and all, but it truly is a special place. I assume you end up working with a lot of second generation, the children of Holocaust survivors as well. Do you feel that there's a sense of that same gravity that's passed on in a unique way or.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Yeah. I mean, obviously, first of all, they feel they would not be here but for America.

[Greg Jackson]

Right.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

You know, so they feel an incredible commitment and gratitude to this country. There are efforts as a survivor population is diminishing for some in the next generation to talk about their family stories. So that is a new trend now that's starting to happen. And I think that's wonderful because I think to carry on things to new generations, the advantage there is also younger people can sometimes connect with younger people in different ways. But I think we're still kind of at the early stages of that, so we'll see what happens. But right now, I mean, we have about 44 survivors who volunteer and come to this museum every week and talk to the public and do all sorts of other things for us. They translate things in our collection. And as long as we have them, we're going to just do everything we can to bring their words to the public and help them have an impact on the next generation. I'd like to go back to the thing about where we Were talking about America and American history and values. When I talked about the Eisenhower Plaza that I have sit right outside my window where people enter the museum. After they walk through the doors of the museum itself, they see two quotes engraved on our walls. One is a letter from, I think it's 1790, from George Washington to the Touro Synagogue in Rhode island, one of the obviously earliest synagogues in America. And he wrote, this country gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution, no assistance. That's just a part of this longer letter. But the reason it's there is because America was the first country where Jews could be both Jewish and American. It's such a novel idea in history. They are not here subjects to any king or czar or monarch at the whim of things. They are just ordinary citizens and can retain their Jewish culture and identity. So it really speaks to what is so unique about this country that is founded not on an ethnic group, but this glorious idea of individual human dignity. And right across from that quote sits the most famous sentence in history. Those lines about all men are created equal from Thomas Jefferson. Again, these are more reminders about what you're gonna see in this museum is in dialogue with everything you see outside the museum. All these memorials to Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, the White House, the Capitol, et cetera. It's in dialogue with our democracy.

[Greg Jackson]

Well, to me, Sarah, that is the common ground that makes all of us in our various forms and backgrounds, American. I think the most brilliant sentence ever penned in the English language is that it is a self evident truth to make that assertion. All men are created equal. Call that self evident. And to not define the nation by a religion, by an ethnicity, to define it by liberty. And that of course, poses inherent challenges, but those are challenges worth facing as a collective group and spitballing as a non Jewish man here. But as I think about my experience in these museums, you know, I feel like there is common ground that every American does feel when they walk in as they wrestle with whatever. Obviously, I mean, the Holocaust is such a singular event. There are a few such singular things that anyone could compare to. Yet that recognition of that wrestling with a space where all of us can simply be who we are, believe what we want. Next up, we're talking about one of USHMM's current example exhibits, Americans and the Holocaust, as well as Holocaust education and the museum's wider goals.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

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[Riley Neubauer]

Thinking more also about the American Jewish experience and what it's like, right, the really unique historical experience of Jews in the United States. I'd like to ask you a little bit about your Americans in the Holocaust exhibit and what stories you've chosen to highlight and what themes were important to you.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

So that exhibit is really, it's a picture of our own country during this period, during the same period from history, Hitler's rise to power to 1945 and the end of the war. And we're showing the public what did Americans know as the Holocaust is unfolding in Europe and how did they respond? And it's really a story. We call it Americans in the Holocaust. It's not America particularly like talking about the government, although we look at the government, but we look at Americans as citizens. And this is because we are the country. You know, the country is us. So we wanted to show it from that perspective and again, that focus, of course, Franklin Roosevelt is in there and of course very problematic people like Breckenridge Long from the State Department. But we also show ordinary Americans. And this was in the beginning when polling was starting to first happen. So the exhibit features a lot of polling. And this shows the last time antisemitism was high in America. Antisemitism is very high today, much higher than it was then at unprecedented levels. But this was the last time that this was the case. And so what you have in America is, For example, in 1938, when the Nazis staged violent action across Jews everywhere in Germany. Synagogues, Jewish businesses, Jewish homes. Kill many Jews, plunder all their property. It's headline news in America everywhere. Two out of three Americans blame the Jews for their own persecution. Two out of three, wow. And even after the war in 1945, now remember, America has. We didn't have TV then, we don't have social media. People are learning about the Holocaust in newspapers, on radio. But. But the war is what everyone is so focused on. And of course, the atrocities that they've heard about seem unbelievable. No, they just can't be true because they're so horrific. But at the end of the war, when Life magazine and these other magazines start publishing in these newsreels that people are seeing in movie theaters and America starts to see the evidence again. Here's a poll where they asked Americans, should we let more of these Jewish refugees after the war who've survived this into the country? And only 5% said, let them in. So again, it was a time of Americans very high degrees of antisemitism. Now, counterpoint to that, you have extraordinary stories of individual Americans. He said, whatever my fellow countrymen think, whatever my government thinks, I'm going to do things to help Jews. So we feature a lot of different stories about that, about taking that individual initiative. And that gets back to that story about critical thinking about my own roles and responsibilities today. What can I do? And there are always choices. And our motto here is, like, what you do matters. You see that around the building. What you do matters. I would say to you all, history matters. History helps us think how what we do matters. And that's what we always are really conveying in everything we do.

[Riley Neubauer]

Do you think presently in the United States there's a lack of knowledge about the Holocaust and about Holocaust history?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Absolutely. I mean, we know this from a lot of surveys. Not only a lack of knowledge, but also very alarmingly so, skepticism about whether it was true. Again, this is. Eisenhower predicted that was happen because he said the crimes are so horrible. In the future, people will think this is just propaganda. And he was absolutely right. I always say Eisenhower, he could never have anticipated social media, but he did understand human nature. So we find. I would say when I look at the picture, you have denial, but you also have a lot of misperceptions and ignorance. A lot of people just aren't sure, or they have misguided views. They think we've done some research, just Hitler alone and a few Nazis killed Jews, things like that. And also, I think we have to put this in larger context, I think historical literacy is at all time lows. I think you have, you know, civics education probably not doing well. Fewer people are studying history. Everyone wants to major in, in STEM or in business or finance. You know, we want people to major in history. To be a responsible citizen, you just have to know about where you've been in order to think about and shape your future.

[Greg Jackson]

Sarah, you're singing our song here. Absolutely agree. You can't have a functional republic without a citizenry well versed in these things.

[Riley Neubauer]

Given the increase in lack of historical scholarship and understanding, how has the museum been pivoting in terms of educational materials and your museum strategy? Are you trying to address some of those gaps in understanding?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Yes. Well, I'd say a couple things. First of all, I'd say the good news is we have more secondary school teachers interested in our teacher training and professional development than ever before. But as you said, we have to shape our resources to help them teach this in a way that's relevant. So, for example, one of the things we've done is because young people today get exposed to so much propaganda online, we have developed a module using Nazi propaganda posters and help teachers teach students. How is that propaganda designed to influence public opinion? Because we want students to be more discerning consumers of all the propaganda that's being thrown their way on TikTok or whatever it might be. So this is something new that we've been trying. We've also done, as I said, this focus more on why the Holocaust happened. Helping explain antisemitism. Many people have misperceptions. They think the Nazis were anti Semitic, but have no idea that antisemitism was around for 2,000 years before Hitler was even born. And that conspiracy theories about Jews are, are not new. They didn't start with the Nazis, they didn't end with the Nazis. They're in the world today and hoping that young people will not be susceptible to the conspiracy theories about Jews and others that they might be exposed to.

[Greg Jackson]

So, as you may know here on htds, we're about to start. We'll say what our second run of Holocaust episodes. We did early Holocaust, basically pretty World War I, 1930s. And now we'll be taking our listeners into the camps. And so about three or four episodes in total. What might you suggest since our listeners are going to be hearing you before they hear these more specific stories? What are some things you believe that they should perhaps keep in mind, you know, framework or thoughts?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

So I would encourage them to think about what happened well before Hitler came to power, not just the Weimar Republic and all the issues it faced, the economic problems, the polarization, the divisions. But go back even further because great events, great meaning, you know, enormous world shaking events like the Holocaust and World War II, they're not meteorites that came down from the sky. Nazism, you know, didn't come from nowhere. These events all have deep roots. So our new way of kind of telling this history is to put the public to think, what are those deep roots? We're redoing our main exhibition and it will start in Europe in 1900 and show this vast continent as a very dynamic, exciting place that's very modern and, and undergoing a lot of change due to new technologies. And that change is creating great advancements, but also great problems for society and leading to a lot of uncertainty and societal anxiety. And it's in this turbulent atmosphere, exciting but turbulent atmosphere where many people benefit from, but of course many people don't, is they have to readjust their lives. This is like industrialization. I'm sure that's a topic you've dealt with before. And of course you have many of these trends happening in America as well. But in Europe, what starts to happen in the midst of all this is you have new questions starting to be asked. People are looking for answers, right? History teaches us that we always look for simple answers to complex questions, questions. So in this turmoil, people start asking, why is this happening? And with the rise of ethnonationalism, one of the questions in scientific racism, those two phenomenon, they start to say, who truly belongs to our nation, who is truly German, who is truly French? And of course the answer ultimately is, well, we have this Jewish minority that's been here. They're not really us, they don't truly belong, they came from somewhere else. And this is a nation that should only be for the true. And this is very much of a racial concept. The true racially pure French, the racially pure Germans. And you can see how these ideas are starting to lay the groundwork for a Nazi movement that is going to be set off because of World War I and World War I. Many scholars I work with say World War I began in 1914 and did not end until 1989. You've probably heard this before, but it set off an entire century of trouble and of dislocation and conflict and the two biggest totalitarian ideologies in modern history. So that would be my encouragement for how people think, think about the Holocaust is to look even deeper in history.

[Riley Neubauer]

I think too, as We've started to put these episodes together. One thing that's, I mean, it struck me for years and years as a descendant of Holocaust survivors, but especially as I've been crafting these narratives, is just the scale of these horrible, horrible stories and the magnitude of all that's come out of the Holocaust. And I'm wondering if you could offer, I suppose, me and the rest of our listeners some advice on how you process and understand and undertake this work of Holocaust storytelling and not kind of break down or go numb after you're surrounded by so much and so much destruction.

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

So one thing we found in doing visitor testing is that our visitors do not grasp the scale of the Holocaust. And we are going to do more to introduce that and to introduce how quickly it is it happened. So, you know, once the mass killings begin, 4 million Jews are killed extremely quickly in just a few years. And by D Day, you know, and everybody is so excited about D Day and it's about the liberation of Europe, but by D Day, 5 million of the 6 million who'll be killed are already killed. So it's not only the size, it's the speed. So you have to communicate that for the public to grasp what an earth shattering event this was. At the same time, you need to personalize it. This wasn't 6 million statistics. This is 6 million individual murders. And these are people with loved ones, with communities, with friends, and they're completely destroyed. So we balance the statistics, but also with a lot of the individual stories about who these people were and what happened to them. That's what our public also tells us. They want to know those stories, but they also want to know the fates. You may recall we have a large tower of faces that shows one community, one tiny little shtetl that's near the Polish Lithuanian border that's been there for hundreds of years. And these are pre war pictures of this community. And it's basically all wiped out in two days by mobile killing units after being there for centuries. But these are pictures of such ordinary people. It just looks like us. And I've taken through so many VIPs from all over the world, people from every country you can imagine. And everybody walks in that room and goes, oh. Because everybody can identify with the individuality and the humanity of just other human beings that are just like them.

[Riley Neubauer]

Is there a particular story either in that section of the museum or an artifact you've come across in your time working for the museum that struck you the most?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

Well, I had pulled out a quote from one of our Visitors. We had visitors write comments, you know, in a comment book. And this visitor wrote after the end of the main exhibition, I'll share it with you. It says this experience was beyond words. Our senior Class came to D.C. expecting to have fun and maybe learn about government and politics. I don't think any of us expected to learn about humanity. And it signed Mandy from Iowa City. So I think the visitors do a great job of seeing this vast history connected to them. The other story I would tell you is we have in our collection now these remarkable letters that. Well, they're little teeny letters on scraps of papers that some of the victims when they're being deported, they of course did not know exactly where they were deported, but they're being deported to killing centers, were throwing from trains, hoping someone would pick them up and get them to their loved ones. So these are like people's last words. And we have some in our collection now. And we did a test with visitors to see how it resonated where visitors could read these letters for themselves and get a little bit of background on the context within which they were written. And one of the visitors was a middle aged woman and she said, you know, I came to Washington with my teenage kids and we took them to a lot of museums. This is the only time they have really been engaged with reading those letters.

[Greg Jackson]

You give a masterclass on it day in and day out. Sarah, it's that impressive ability to ensure that the human side of history, even in such an ugly event is being presented to your visitors. There's nothing that will make history get through even to, you know, to lean into the stereotypes. I guess the church checked out teen like them realizing those historical figures were people. Sarah, it's been delightful having you. Is there any last thoughts that you'd like to leave with our listeners before we wrap up today?

[Sarah J. Bloomfield]

I would just say thank you for your interest in our work and for people seeing that history is really, really looking at ourselves in the mirror. That's what it's really about. And I just hope people will study the Holocaust, come to the museum, study the causes of the Holocaust and see themselves in that story and see themselves in the future story that they can write as citizens.

[Greg Jackson]

That's beautiful. And of course if you're in the Washington D.C. area, everyone, we'd encourage you to make a visit. It'll be more than worth your while. Thanks again, Sarah, and it's truly been a delight.

[Riley Neubauer]

Yes, thank you. And that was a fantastic thought to end on.

[Greg Jackson]

And that does it for this prologue Episode it was a real honor to have Sarah on the podcast. I'll see you back here in two weeks when we continue our episodes about anti Semitism and the Holocaust. History that Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode Produced by Dawson McCraw with editorial assistance by Riley Neubauer and Ella Henriksen. Special thanks to Episode co host Riley Neubauer, USHMM director Sarah Bloomfield and the Museum staff. Production by Airship Sound design by Molly Bopp theme music composed by Greg Jackson, Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham of Airship. Htds is supported by fans at. My gratitude to kind souls providing funding to help us continue. Thank you and a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam goran, ahmad chapman, andrew nissan, andrew sherwin, anna m. Hutta, art lane, bob stinnet, bonnie brooks, brian gavigan, brian boyles, brian goodson, bruce hibbert, hayden halletts, charles clenden, charles starkey, charlie mages, christopher merchant, christopher pullman, cindy rosenthal, feline martin, colin fares pennington, connor hogan, craig burholt, dan g, daniel o', kane, darren chambers, david rifkin, dean heiser, durante spencer, donald moore, ellie edwards, elizabeth christiansen, ellen stewart, ernie lomaster, ethan lowery, ethan thompson g2303 jeffrey nelson, george j. Sherwood, gareth griffin, gina johnson, henry brunges, polly hamilton, jake gilbreth, james bledsoe, james blue, james schlender, jarrett zangora, jeff dempsey, jeffrey mootz, jennifer mingione, jennifer roof, jeremy wells, jerome edwards, jessica poppett, joe dobas, john boovie, john frugaldougall, john huber, john messmer, john oliveros, john rudlevich, john schaefer, jonathan sheff, jordan corbett, joshua steiner, julian wright, justin may, justin spriggs, carl and elizabeth salling, carl friedman, carl hindle, ken culver, kim r. Kristen pratt, kyle decker l paul goeringer l. Norman, lawrence neubauer, linda cunningham, mark ellis, marcia smith, matt siegel, micah perryman, michael sullivan, nick capital, owen w. Sedlak, pamela fidler, peter hugenroth, philip may, rick runkle, rick brown, robert drazovich rock day sam holtzman, sarah prescott, sarah treywick, shannon hoagland, sharon thiesen, sean danes, sean colon, stacy ritter, steve williams the creepy girl thomas churchill, thomas matthew edwards, thomas sabbath, tim and sarah turner, todd curran, tom stofka, travis cox, wesley mckee and zach jackson join me in two weeks where I'd like to tell you a story.