Library Plans Dedication of Holocaust Collection

(July 16, 2007) – With seed money of $6,000 in donations, New College of Florida has set the date – Jan. 20, 2008 – for the formal dedication of a book collection to honor a local survivor of the Holocaust and to eventually make its campus library a major source in Florida for Holocaust research.

To be named the Dr. Helen N. Fagin Holocaust Collection, the books and research materials will be located in the Jane Bancroft Cook Library on the New College campus.

The collection project was begun by a group of individuals with the Sarasota-Manatee Arch Family Holocaust Education Center to honor Fagin (at right), a Sarasota resident and a Holocaust survivor originally from Poland. She is a retired professor of English and former director of Judaic studies at the University of Miami.

Fagin served on the content committee and chaired the education committee for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and was on the advisory board for the World War II Memorial Committee, both located in Washington, D.C. She continues to lecture and to train teachers on the Holocaust, and was appointed to the Florida task force for teaching about prejudice and lessons of the Holocaust.

Fagin serves on the board of trustees of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg.

William Parsons, chief of staff of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, is scheduled to speak at the collection dedication in January.

Cook Library staffers have worked closely with Fagin to select materials for the collection. Many books have been ordered with the first donations.

Donations to the Fagin Holocaust Collection may be made by check payable to the New College Library Association and sent to the NCLA at The Keating Center, 5800 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota, FL 34243-2109.

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