Memories/Motifs explores "how American Jews came to know stories about Holocaust survivors through American Jewish philanthropic activities in the immediate postwar period." The website was created by historian Rachel Deblinger and is based on her dissertation at the University of California Los Angeles. This website centers on the stories of three individuals who survived the Holocaust: Kurt Maier, Irene Gutmann, and "Hannah." Each of these stories illustrates different aspects of how Americans learned about the horrors of the Holocaust. Maier was a pianist who came to the attention of Americans in two different ways: first, through an April 1947 performance broadcasted by WNYC and sponsored by the United Service for New Americans, and then when The New Yorker penned a profile about him in August 1947. Gutmann, meanwhile, survived the Holocaust as a child and was featured in a 1947 issue of Life Magazine as a "war orphan." The third story is about "Hannah," the pseudonym of a girl who emigrated to Palestine after surviving the Holocaust with help from the organization Young Aliyah; "Hannah" was featured in brochures to raise money for the group. This powerful online exhibit embeds a number of primary sources into each individual's story, enabling visitors to examine materials that were crucial to raising American awareness about the Holocaust.
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