A legacy of remembrance

By Jane Wildermuth, University Librarian, and Beth Anderson, Dayton Holocaust Research Center Associate

Renate Frydman, a survivor of Nazi persecution, funded the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center, housed at Wright State. (Photos by Erin Pence)

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center at Wright State University, celebrating the vision and dedication of Renate Frydman, Ph.D.

A survivor of Nazi persecution who fled Germany just before Kristallnacht, Frydman has devoted her life to advancing understanding, empathy and moral responsibility through Holocaust education. Her work has shaped generations of students, educators and community members across the Miami Valley and beyond.

In recognition of her extraordinary contributions, Wright State awarded Frydman an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 2009. The honor acknowledged not only her personal history but her decades of educational leadership, advocacy and service.

A founding member of the Ohio Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education in 1986, Frydman established the Holocaust Education Committee and later the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center to provide educators and students with trusted, carefully curated materials. When the center became part of Wright State in 2001, it gained a permanent academic home for Holocaust scholarship on our campus.

Frydman also spearheaded oral history efforts through the Faces of the Holocaust project, preserving local survivor and liberator testimonies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and making them freely available on YouTube and Wright State’s institutional repository, CORE Scholar.

Over the past 25 years, the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center has evolved into an interdisciplinary resource supporting instruction across education, ethics, medicine and social sciences. Its collection of books, films, curriculum guides and classroom materials addresses not only the Holocaust, but also genocide, racism, antisemitism and bullying.

For 25 years, the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center at the Dunbar Library has grown its collection of books, films, curriculum guides and classroom materials.

The center’s impact is further reflected in initiatives such as the Boonshoft School of Medicine’s Medicine and the Holocaust elective. Students in this course examine ethical responsibilities in medicine and participate in the From Ashes to Action Humanity Project, translating their learning into community engagement and service.

Frydman generously funds the center, sustaining its growth and providing students with practical experience. Undergraduate assistants contribute to digitization, exhibit design, web resource development and oral history transcription. Recently, a graduate student in public history curated a Kristallnacht exhibit using center materials, demonstrating how it serves as a laboratory for scholarship and engagement.

This anniversary year features events that highlight Frydman’s influence, including a play based on her book, “Anschel’s Story: Determined to Live,” which tells her husband’s extraordinary survival journey. In every lecture and classroom visit, Frydman stresses the importance of individual moral choice: “If we can get one child to change his or her thought process, then we have done our job.”

As we celebrate 25 years of the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center at Wright State, we reaffirm our shared responsibility to preserve memory and promote understanding. Please visit libraries.wright.edu for more information about anniversary events and center programs.

Explore More

• Dayton Holocaust Resource Center resource guide: guides.libraries.wright.edu/dhrc
• Holocaust oral history project: corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/special_ms215