Photo: Emma Pile | Staff Photographer
As part of the numerous week-long events conducted at Elizabethtown College in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Proof Media for Social Justice displayed the exhibit “Picturing Moral Courage: The Rescuers” within the High Library.
The showcase, which closes Feb. 8, shares stories of global genocide victims during all open hours of the library with students, faculty and the general public.
Proof Media for Social Justice created the traveling exhibit, which focuses on raising awareness of genocide within global affairs and the citizens who took heroic actions to intervene and help save lives.
The High Library hosted the exhibit in the Winter’s Alcove, while sponsoring the event along with Etown’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX and the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking (CGUP).
Instruction and Outreach Librarian Josh Cohen expressed how much additional attention the exhibit received during the week of MLK Jr. Day.
“I’ve seen interest in the exhibit not only from students and faculty but also from community members,” Cohen said.
The exhibit consists of 21 personal accounts and portraits of survivors who fell victim to mass waves of genocide in the Holocaust, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and Cambodia.
However, the stories are centered around tributes to their rescuers.
The message of gratitude towards the group of everyday people who risked their own lives to help strangers facing horrific forms of persecution was undeniable.
Proof Media for Social Justice states on their website that “[The Rescuers] represent all walks of life: farmers, taxi drivers, nuns, mothers and fathers [who] risked everything to save neighbors, friends and strangers.”
According to the advertisments for the exhibit, “The rescuers are emblems of hope.”
Access Services Librarian Amy Magee brought the exhibit to campus this semester.
When viewing the display, Magee noted her interest in how the simplicity of some of the rescuers’ acts worked so effectively.
“Some forms of help aren’t dramatic like the superheroes in movies,” Magee said. “Forms of thanks have been given because a Rescuer held the hand of a victim when walking in the dark.”
The library will host a number of programs and exhibits throughout the semester, and these can be found by visiting the High Library website and by clicking on the Library Events icon.
Junior Damani Odom thought that the exhibit and the stories within set positive examples for the student and faculty community.
“[Elizabethtown College] shows vast interest of benefiting others when providing an exhibit like this. I’m glad to see the involvement in so many areas,” Odom said.
Etown’s motto, “Educate for service,” seems to share similarities with the goal of the exhibit.
Both encourage individials to raise awareness, promote tolerance and coexistence while emphasizing a personal commitment to fight injustice in everyday ways.
