Bosnian Genocide exhibit opens at LU April 2

The Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission (THGC) hopes to educate citizens about the circumstances that led to the Bosnian Genocide through the 34-panel, Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide exhibit. The exhibit opens April 2 at Lamar University’s Mary and John Gray Library and will run through April 30.

Genocides begin when intolerant and hateful individuals dehumanize others in a society by putting them into separate and unequal classes and deliberately harming them. According to the Genocide Watch organization, genocides and mass murders led to the killing of more than 170 million people, more than the sum of the deaths in all 20th and 21st century wars combined.

The Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide exhibit relates the story of genocide in the Bosnian city of Prijedor between 1992 and 1995. The exhibit honors both the memory of the lives lost in the genocide and the experiences of the survivors whose stories are told within the 34-panel series. Prior to its stop in Beaumont, the exhibit was displayed in Georgetown, Lubbock, Midland, Tyler, Brownsville, Abilene and Corpus Christi.

The display will be located on the 6th floor of the library and is open for public viewing. The Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission increases awareness of genocide and the Holocaust through educational programs, resources, assistance, and coordination of groups, events, and volunteers.

Chaja Verveer, THGC commissioner and a Holocaust survivor, said, “Our kids need to be taught to recognize and fight bigotry, to stem hatred and prejudice and learn about living together and embracing diversity.”

The Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide exhibit is open to all Texans, and students and educators are encouraged to attend. Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission programs include teacher workshops providing guidance in teaching the Holocaust and other genocides, the recording of concentration camp liberator oral histories, and the enhancing of social studies curriculum through requiring the teaching of genocide-related content in school classrooms.

For more information regarding Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission programs and Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, contact them at www.thgc.texas.gov or by phone at 512.463.8815.