The Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanities Center will now feature the testimony of local survivors, Dr. Henry Fenichel and Al Miller, in its new “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibit.
“Dimensions in Testimony” is an initiative of the USC Shoah Foundation. The exhibit allows people to ask questions and interact with a 2-D life-sized image of a survivor – in real-time, as if they are in the room. The HHC is one of 12 museums worldwide that have this exhibit.
Cincinnatians can come see it for free in January; the HHC is currently in the middle of its free admission month, which the museum now offers every January, thanks to a gift from the Anita & Hank Schneider family.
Last year’s free admission month led to record attendance at the HHC, and this year is on track to surpass those numbers, according to HHC CEO Jackie Congedo.
“Our local survivor community has been at the heart of our mission to ensure the lessons of the Holocaust inspire action and responsibility,” said Congedo. “By including their testimonies in “Dimensions in Testimony,” we honor their legacies while giving future generations a unique chance to learn from their experiences in a deeply personal way.”
Visitors to the museum can now interact with the testimony of local Holocaust survivor Dr. Henry Fenichel. In September, the testimony of Al Miller will debut on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Recording for the “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibit is emotionally intense, requiring the interviewee to answer questions about the most painful times in their lives for hours.
“The process was tiring every day of the week, seven hours a day. You sit in the same position and wear the same clothes,” said Fenichel.
Before Feinchel started speaking about his experiences, he said that when people asked him, he would tell them his story, which is similar to Anne Frank’s but with a happy ending. Fenichel and his mother survived the Shoah and immigrated first to Israel, and then to the United States.
It wasn’t until he retired, and started attending a local survivor group, and after his retirement, that he began sharing his story and speaking at schools with the HHC.
“Once I retired, I stopped writing equations on the board and spent my time being a witness volunteer,” Fenichel said.
“I enjoy making the presentations, either at a high school or down here (at the HHC),” he said. “As long as it is maybe only once a week, not every day. When I see a class of 20 to 30 kids, and I see them understanding, I can see a communication in silence.”
When asked what sort of impact he thought his speaking had, Fenichel walked across the room, picked up a rubber-banded stack of student letters, and dropped them on the table with a heavy thud.
“This is what I just read today. Thank you notes for the recent presentation I gave,” he said.
Fenichel says he gets stacks of these letters after all his presentations from students.
To Fenichel and the HHC, capturing survivors’ testimony is even more critical right now. With the historic rise in antisemitism, skyrocketing after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. In 2023, a national poll showed 1 in 5 students thought the holocaust was a myth. Fenichel said he is often asked what he says to those who deny the Holocaust.
“My answer to that is, every time they deny the Holocaust, the Nazis are turning in their graves because they were proud of what they’re doing,” he said. “They kept records…I had the date my father arrived in Auschwitz, and the day they killed him.”
Fenichel plans on continuing to share his story as a volunteer with the HHC, and sees it as one of the reasons he survived.
“So many people perished, and maybe I survived to bear witness, which keeps me going,” he said.
The Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanities Center is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. from Thursday to Monday.