Holocaust Exhibit May Find Home in Adams
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ADAMS, Mass. — The library trustees last week endorsed the temporary installment of a holocaust exhibit in the Memorial Hall.
The request came from Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco, who is in talks with Darrell K. English, owner of the New England Holocaust Institute, to find a permanent home for his museum in Adams.
Mazzucco said English, who has to vacate his North Adams location by the end of April because of the expansion of the adjacent Friendship Food Pantry, is interested in using Memorial Hall to display some of his collection while he raises funds for a permanent location in town.
"It's good to help him get here permanently, and I think it is good for the library because it’s a chance to house a historical collection and display it to the public," Mazzucco said. "It would hit a couple of objectives with one stone."
English, whose museum had been located on Eagle Street in North Adams for three years, has collected thousands of World War II artifacts that include Nazi uniforms and propaganda and Holocaust artifacts, even a canister used in the gas chambers.
Mazzucco proposed lining partitions along the edge of Memorial Hall so English can display some of the highlights of his vast collection. He said this would still leave room for some activities in Memorial Hall.
"We could create it so people could walk through and see everything," he said. "He's only got 700 to 800 square feet where he is now so you could set something up in a snake fashion so people could meander through."
Mazzucco said English would be in the building when his collection is on display and he would have to coordinate with the library his hours of operation.
The installation would only be up from six months to year to provide English time to raise money and advertise his collection to possible donors. He said he would like to create a "Friends of the New England Holocaust Institute" in town to help with the process.
"Darrell's skill set and experience is in the collection and historical development as an appraiser," he said. "I would like to see if we could get a group to do some of the fundraising and some of the organization development that we need to do to get it to the next step."
The temporary installation would last from six months to a year. Mazzucco said they would like to set up the museum somewhere on Park or Summer Street where it would see a lot of foot traffic. The "pie in the sky" location would be the vacant TD Bank building on Park Street.
He said it would be a good home for the museum and the Mill Children Exhibit that is also looking for a new location. He said he has been in contact with the owner to see if it could be donated for use or subleased.
Trustee Jill Pompi said it would be a great resource for education.
"He should reach out to some of the educators," Pompi said. "We would love to have something like that in town … it would be wonderful a walking field trip."
The trustees did have concerns over minor details such as the layout, insurance coverage, and how many people the museum would attract, however, Mazzucco said he along with the library director and English would continue conversations on the exhibit and work out the specifics.
Tags: adams library, historical exhibit, Holocaust, museum,
