Cohen to present as USI Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Holocaust Series speaker

The University of Southern Indiana will host the third annual Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Holocaust Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 23, 2025, in the Performance Center, located on the USI campus. The 2025 speaker is Judy Cohen, former Chief Acquisitions Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The presentation is open to the public at no charge. 

Cohen’s presentation, “My Dearest One: A Wife’s Final Goodbye,” will explore how newly discovered artifacts and documents deepen understanding of the Holocaust. It will highlight a one-of-a-kind letter written at Auschwitz moments before a woman was murdered, along with other unique archival materials that illuminate the experiences of her husband and child. 

As the former Chief Acquisitions Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Cohen was instrumental in preserving Holocaust history through the Museum’s extensive collections. A graduate of Harvard University with a master’s degree from Brandeis, she curated numerous web exhibits and authored works that examined distinct facets of Holocaust documentation, including Memento Mori: Photographs from the Grave, Three Approaches to Exploring the Höcker Album and Jewish Ghetto Photographers. Her research brought critical insight into the lives captured by Jewish photographers and the personal artifacts that reflected life in Europe before and during the Holocaust. 

Cohen’s work has been crucial in helping descendants of Holocaust survivors preserve their family histories. Her dedication ensured these artifacts remained safeguarded and accessible, enriching public understanding of the Holocaust through deeply personal and often previously unseen materials. 

This series is made possible by the USI Foundation through the Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Speaker Series Endowment. The endowment was established by the late Irene C. Rechnic and honors her parents' struggle to survive the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during WWII, where 960,000 Jews were executed.   

For questions on the presentation, contact the College of Liberal Arts at 812-464-1855.