NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – A team of researchers is in town this week to document the extensive collection of Holocaust artifacts collected by North Adams resident Darrell English.
“Talking to family members who were in the war at the time, and they said, ‘Oh hey, kid, I brought this back if you want it,’ and off we were running,” said English. “Just little pieces here, little pieces there, and over the last 50 some odd years, it’s grown into what you’re seeing now.”
The researchers are lead by Jordana Lebowitz, who founded a Holocaust education nonprofit called Shadowlight. She’s planning to use some of English’s collection in a new, mobile exhibition.
“We are absolutely floored by what we’re seeing here,” Lebowitz said. “It’s really emotional, really. I mean, you really feel like you’re touching the people who experienced this and that you’re sort of there with them in a sense.”
Some of the pieces included will be Nazi propaganda posters, a prisoner’s uniform from a concentration camp, and a 1937 flag from a pro-Nazi German-American organization.
“This is a historical artifact that, by all standards, should have been destroyed years ago, right after the start of World War II, which a lot of them were,” said English of the flag. “Once December 7 hit, all of this stuff was virtually wiped out by their own hands. But surprisingly, this is the second one that I know of that exists.”
Lebowitz hopes to bring the exhibition to schools throughout the U.S. and Canada in the fall. She called being able to include artifacts like these a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“When you really get to interact with something that was physically there,” said Lebowitz, “it’s just an amazing opportunity to learn about what it was like at that time and makes the education even more powerful.”