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JOIN US Exciting Season | New Exhibits | Programming

she wore during her imprisonment in Auschwitz and Bergen-
Belsen. Her mother had been a seamstress before the war. The
coat included a small fur collar – her father had been a furrier
before the war began.
Shirley Besikof, a guest relations and education volunteer,
was born in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp. Her
mother and father were students before the war and endured
being in multiple concentration camps during the Holocaust.
They met after the war in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp, where
they lived from 1945–1949. Shirley said her father had a favorite
story he told often about their immigration to the United States.
When he asked one of the American soldiers in early 1949 if
he had ever heard of their destination, St. Paul, Minnesota, the
soldier laughed and said “you are going to Siberia!” Shirley is the
child in the stroller in this photo, taken in front of one of the
barracks at Bergen-Belsen.
Exciting Programs Coming in 2023-2024
In addition to opening the North Wing, we are completing
program and exhibit planning for July 2023 – June 2024.
We will be hosting several field trips from local summer camps,
offering a new “Movies That Matter” series in the Fall, hosting
the Grand Opening of the North Wing, and exciting
new special exhibits in the expanded Estelle and Stuart Price
Gallery – “Forgeries of the Holocaust,” “Stitching History”
and “Lawyers Without Rights.” Shirley Besikof and parents at Bergen-Belson DP camp

J
!
We hope to see you this month or join us in July when we reopen!
uly when we reopen
We hope to see you this month or join us in

PLEASE NOTE:

the Museum will be closed from May 8 until approximately July 10, 2023
for construction and installation of the new exhibits.
Please visit our website ( www.HMCEC.org )
for further updates on the closure and reopening dates.

Life in Naples | May/June/July 65