Building the Accessible Collection of Record
The collection is the physical bridge between the individuals, their stories, and the events of the Holocaust and our world today… .
—Travis Roxlau
In 2007, Museum Curator Kyra Schuster received a large envelope from Alaska. Inside was an old photo album full of snapshots from the 1950s. The album also held something else: liberation photographs from Dachau. It also contained immigration documents and telegrams with a name on them — Berek Aptajker — along with a note saying the album had been found in a storage unit purchased by someone unrelated to the album. That conscientious person sent it to the Museum.
Schuster looked up Berek Aptajker online and reached out to the man, by then called Bernard Aptaker, in Houston. He replied, surprised to hear that the long-lost photo album had ended up in her hands. He had lived in Anchorage for a short time and the album must have been lost or left behind. He thanked Schuster and gave her permission to copy the Holocaust-related images for the Museum’s photo reference collection before she returned the album to him. Schuster had no idea that one day Aptaker would become one of the Museum’s biggest donors.
The Museum has named one of the collections wings of the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center in Aptaker’s honor.
Every object in the Museum’s collection tells the story of an individual. It serves as evidence of the truth. Aptaker’s oral testimony tells the story of life before and during the Holocaust. Digital images from his long-lost photo album tell the story of his life after liberation from Dachau. These items are permanently housed at the new Shapell Center. “The collection is the physical bridge between the individuals, their stories, and the events of the Holocaust and our world today,” explained Travis Roxlau, director of collections services for the Museum’s National Institute for Holocaust Documentation.
In addition to collections that find their way to the Museum through the efforts of the general public, our professional team aggressively collects in an effort that spans 50 countries on six continents. The depth and breadth of our existing collection belies the fact that the majority of Holocaust materials are likely still out there, stored in attics, basements, and lost photo albums. This is why the Museum has accelerated its race to collect evidence while there is still time.
“When we no longer have our eyewitnesses, these items will be the remaining firsthand link to that period of time,” said Roxlau. The Museum’s oral histories, photographs, and other collections give the institution the ability to tell peoples’ stories, while also serving scholars who work to advance knowledge about the Holocaust (see page 24).
In addition to acquiring and preserving artifacts, an important goal of the Shapell Center is to make the collections accessible both online and onsite. Since its dedication in 2017, the Shapell Center has hosted a number of scholarly meetings, seminars, and workshops, including welcoming individuals from more than 40 museums, archives, and affiliated professional organizations.
“It’s a dynamic place,” Roxlau said. “We’ve always said we were going to build a state-of-the-art facility. Now we have, and it’s being recognized as the international gold standard.”
