Holocaust resource center location to be dedicated

AUGUSTA – A small urn containing earth from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust death camp will be presented to Dr. Julius Ciembroniewicz at the dedication and consecration of the building site for the new Michael Klahr Holocaust Education Resource Center at 3 p.m. Monday, April 26, at the Katz Library at the University of Maine at Augusta.

The Consulate of the Republic of Poland will present the urn on behalf of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. The urn will be embedded into the building of the center or placed in a contemplative space.

The resource center is a project supported by the Holocaust Human Rights Center of Maine in cooperation with the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Maine System. It will be built as an addition to the Bennett D. Katz Library on the Augusta campus.

Funding for the center will come mostly through private donations, specifically from Phyllis Jalbert, formerly of Fort Kent, who gave a donation in remembrance of her late husband and Holocaust survivor Michael Klahr.

The dedication and consecration ceremony is free and open to the public. Gov. John Baldacci will be present. For information, call the Holocaust Human Rights Center of Maine at 993-2620.