The powerful exhibit "Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory.” is closing this month at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to make way for a new exhibit on life in Illinois through the centuries.
The final day to see "Stories of Survival” is Jan. 22.
The exhibit, created by Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, features people who escaped acts of genocide and the objects they carried as they fled. Each object is also shown in a photograph that includes handwritten notes telling the survivor’s story.
People in the exhibit come from Germany, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia, and more. Some managed to save toys, jewelry, or beautiful dishes, while others escaped with nothing but a few battered pictures, identification papers, or family recipes.
"This exhibit mixes hope and horror so powerfully. The stories are incredible, and the objects help us identify with people enduring something almost unimaginable,” said Christina Shutt, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. "We thank the Illinois Holocaust Museum for letting us bring the exhibit here, and we hope everyone takes advantage of the remaining time to see it.”
The next major ALPLM exhibit will be "Here I Have Lived: Home in Illinois.” It explores the many ways individuals and groups have chosen to build their lives in the prairie state.