The biggest attraction downtown Sunday definitely was the Great Circus Parade, but a few who came to the vicinity of the Pfister Hotel found their eyes pulled to something worlds away from that.
In one of the hotel’s windows facing Wisconsin Ave. were signs announcing that the Pfister Hotel Gallery was hosting an exhibit called “Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats.” This touring exhibit, sponsored by the Milwaukee chapter of the American Jewish Committee, celebrates the 136 diplomats from 23 countries that helped rescue some 300,000 Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust era.
Of the people who visited on Sunday morning, some like Milwaukeean Patrick Prudlow came to the area to stake out a spot from which to watch the parade, and found themselves drawn to the exhibit.
Prudlow, a general contractor, said he has personal reasons to be interested in Holocaust-related things. He is gay and he praised the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., for doing “a great job” on highlighting the German Nazi persecution of homosexuals.
Prudlow lauded the “Visas for Life” exhibit. “Getting rid of bigotry and prejudice is a slow process,” he said. “Education is the only way to stop hatred.”
Indeed, the exhibit provided education to people like Glenn and Jean Graf from Elkhorn, who were in Milwaukee to celebrate their 25th anniversary and decided to take in the exhibit.
“I had no idea there were people working under the radar” to rescue Jews, said Glenn. “It’s been very moving to read some of these stories.”
Milwaukee printer John Vidal, who came downtown for the parade and Bastille Days, also wandered into the exhibit and said after he saw that he was “touched and moved…. I didn’t know these people existed.”
Sue Wade had come to Milwaukee from Chattanooga, Tenn., to attend with her public works administrator husband the annual conference of the National Association of Counties, which ended Tuesday.
“I just was intrigued” by the exhibit, said Wade, who works in the Hamiton County clerk’s office. “I didn’t realize how many good people there were” who “put their lives on the line for someone else.” She was particularly amazed to learn of the Japanese and Chinese rescuers Chiune Sugihara and Dr. Feng Shan Ho. “Who would have thought of that?”
These two rescuers also surprised Paul and Hope Nelson of West Bend. They already were aware of the existence of the diplomatic rescuers, having visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum earlier this month.
“Some of the names I recognize” from the Washington museum, said Paul, a retired physics teacher. “But there were names here I didn’t recognize.”
And Hope, a retired city council member, said this exhibit “fits together perfectly” with the information they received elsewhere.
The exhibit opened June 30 and is open roughly four hours a day, six days a week. Mindy Forbes, an elementary school teacher, has been serving as docent and said doing so has been “the best summer job I’ve ever had.”
“The people who come are quality,” she said. So far, she said, they have been mostly non-Jews who are “eager to learn about this aspect of the Holocaust.”
The exhibit runs through July 30. Hours are noon-4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
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