Arts & Entertainment

Rockville Library to Dedicate Holocaust Collection

Congregation chose the Rockville Public Library to maintain its Holocaust collection after a merger.

The Rockville Public library will dedicate its Dan Leblanc Collection of Holocaust Books in a ceremony scheduled for Sunday.

The dedication is scheduled for 1 p.m. for the collection that will be housed in the library’s main reading room.

The acquisition resulted from a merger between two north central Connecticut Jewish congregations.

In August 2009, as Congregation B’Nai Israel of Vernon was preparing to merge with Temple Beth Shalom of Manchester, the congregation had to make an important decision about where to put its treasured Dan Leblanc Collection.

The temple selected the Rockville Public Library to hold and maintain the 220 books that Vernon resident Dan Leblanc donated to the congregation after gathering them to remember the Holocaust and serve as a reference to history.

The books document the history of the Holocaust from its origins in the thoughts and policies of Adolf Hitler and his regime to the eventual war crimes trials in Nuremburg. 

They cover the events of the Holocaust, Nazi treatment of Jewish citizens in Europe, the concentration camps and the personal stories of Holocaust survivors.

Rockville Public Library officials said they were "honored" to be the hosts of an  "important collection of information about a period in history that must not be forgotten."

The ceremony's keynote speaker will be Hanna Marcus, who was born in a displaced persons camp after her mother survived the Holocaust. She will speak about her family’s experience. 

Refreshments will be served, and the ceremony is open to the public.

For more information, call the adult circulation desk at 860-875-5892.  The library is located at 52 Union Street.


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