Letter from Edythe Katz, Chairperson of the Holocaust Education Committee, Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, Governor's Holocaust Advisory Council to Allan Boruszak inviting him to join the Educators Conference: "Teaching Lessons on the Holocaust."
Interview with Myra Berkovits, Susan Dubin and Doug Unger of the Holocaust Resource Center. In this interview, the group discusses the beginnings of what is now the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center. Edythe Katz-Yarchever is discussed as the catalyst for establishing the center and getting others involved with the Governor's Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust. Berkovits talks about her role as a liason for Holocaust education in the Clark County School District and the student-teacher conferences held each year with funding from Sheldon Adelson. Unger discusses expanding the outreach to the Washoe County School District with assistance from Atlantis Hotel (Reno, Nev.) owner, John Farahi and Judy Mack. They talk about the previous locations of the Holocaust Resource Center on Maryland Parkway, then Renaissance Drive, and the affiliation with the Jewish Federation and the Jewish Family Service Agency. After funding and personnel issues around 2011, the advisory council and the library went through a re-structuring and hired Susan Dubin who organized and catalogued the library collection. The library is now accredited by the Association of Jewish Libraries.
Interview with Doug Unger by Barbara Tabach on August 26, 2014. In the interview, Unger discusses his schooling, his family's mattress business, and his endeavors in the company and the mattress industry in Las Vegas. Unger becomes involved in Holocaust education and the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center.
Doug Unger was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up working summers in a mattress factory, a family business started by his maternal grandfather. After graduating from high school in Cleveland, Doug attended the University of Cincinnati until moving to Steamboat Springs, and enrolled in Denver University, though ended his college career one class away from graduation. Eventually, Unger moved back to Cleveland, then to Las Vegas. In 1976, Dough bought Supreme Mattress and moved to Las Vegas to build his new business. Outside his successful career, Doug was always an active member in the city's Jewish community. He joined Congregation Ner Tamid, where he was a trustee. He became involved with the Jewish Federation, serving as treasurer and later as president. When he moved to Reno, Doug joined Temples Sinai and Emanu-el, and also became heavily involved with Guide Dogs for the Blind Friends Committee, serving as its director for a period of time. He was also the co-chair of the Governor's Advisory Council on Education Related to the Holocaust (GAC). Doug was instrumental in establishing the Library for Holocaust Studies as a successful organization, independent of the Jewish Federation. The Library is now located in its own, donated space, run by trained staff, and receives $200,000 from the state biennially.
In this oral history, the long married couple Henry and Anita Schuster recall the history of the 1930s and how they eventually met and created a life together. Their childhoods were distinctively different, but charter a future where they would inevitably meet. Born in Germany in 1926, Henry recalls the dawn of Hitler and the Nazism. His mother would arrange for his evacuation to France, where he would not know her fate or that of his two sisters for a number of years. Along with hundreds of other displaced children, he escaped to America and lived with relatives in Louisiana where he finished his schooling and joined the US Army. Anita on the other hand grew up with her family in New York. They share the story of meeting when she was 16, falling in love and marrying in 1948. They had four children and moved several times before settling in California. They retired to Las Vegas in 1993. Henry's recollections include childhood memories of the Holocaust and its affect on his family, including the loss of his mother and one of his sisters. Finding his surviving sister Bertel (Betty Kale) after the war is a heartwarming tale of survival. The Schusters are part of the approximately 300 members of the Holocaust Survivor Group that has settled in southern Nevada and Henry was President Emeritus of the group. He published his memoir, Abraham's Son-the Making of an American, in 2010.