Miles Lerman (January 6, 1920 – January 22, 2008) was an American activist who helped plan and create both the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...
in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, and the memorial at the
Bełżec extermination camp.
Lerman, a
Holocaust survivor
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...
himself, had fought as a
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
resistance fighter during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in
Nazi German
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
occupied
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
.
[
]
Early life
Lerman was born as Szmuel Milek Lerman in Tomaszów Lubelski
Tomaszów Lubelski is a town in south-eastern Poland with 19,365 inhabitants (2017). Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, near Roztocze National Park, it is the capital of Tomaszów Lubelski County.
History
The town was founded at the end of the ...
, Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, in 1920.[ His parents were Israel and Yochevet Feldzon Lerman and he was one of five children.][ His mother, Yochevet, owned an ]import
An importer is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. Import is part of the International Trade which involves buying and receivin ...
and export
An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...
grocery
A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...
business.[ His father, Israel, owned several businesses throughout eastern Poland, including several flour mills in Eastern Poland and wholesale liquor and gasoline businesses.]["Members of the administrative staff of the Schlachtensee displaced persons camp pose in the office of UNRRA camp director Schwartzberg"]
photoarchives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; includes a text based on an interview with Miles Lehman on July 17, 2001
Lerman and his family fled to the city of Lwów
Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...
following the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.[ In 1941 Lerman was captured and sent to the Vinniki forced labor camp.][ ] However, he managed to escape the camp. He spent the next 23 months as a Jewish resistance fighter hidden in the forests surrounding Lwów.[
He went to the Polish city of ]Łódź
Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
following the end of the war.[ There he met his wife, Krysia Rozalia Laks, whom he married in a ]Displaced Persons camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displace ...
.[ The couple emigrated together to the United States in 1947.][
Lerman arrived in ]New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in 1947 before moving to Vineland, New Jersey
Vineland is a City (New Jersey), city and the most populous municipality in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. Bridgeton, New Jersey, Bridgeton and Vineland are the two principal cities of the ...
, in 1948.[ Lerman purchased a ]poultry
Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting animal products such as meat, Eggs as food, eggs or feathers. The practice of animal husbandry, raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typ ...
farm in Vineland.[ He also started a series of successful real estate, ]gasoline
Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...
and heating
In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, atom ...
businesses.[
]
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Miles Lerman's involvement with the United States Holocaust Museum can be traced to 1979.[ That year, ]United States President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
named Lerman to the President’s Commission advisory board
An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to the ...
on the Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.[ One of the Commission's main tasks was the creation of a museum dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.][
The ]United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
passed a legislation
Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...
granting land on the National Mall
The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institu ...
in Washington D.C. for the purpose of building the museum.[ However, all funds for the construction of the museum had to be raised privately.][
Lerman, who became ]chairman
The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...
of the Campaign to Remember, and the committee managed to raise $190 million in order to construct and endow the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[ He also served simultaneously as the chairman of the future museum's ]International Relations
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
Committee, which was charged with negotiating with Eastern European
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and ...
nations in order to obtain artifacts focusing on Jewish life and the Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
for the museum's permanent collection.[ Lerman's IR Committee managed to obtain a number of important artifacts, including actual ]barracks
Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...
from the Birkenau concentration camp, a railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
boxcar
A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
used to transport Jewish prisoners to Treblinka
Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...
, over 5,000 shoes from Majdanek and various toothbrushes, suitcase
A suitcase is a form of baggage. It is a rectangular container with a handle and is typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popular ...
s and other personal items from Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
.[
Lerman served as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's governing board from the time of its opening on April 22, 1993, until he left the museum in 2000.][ Additionally, Lerman helped to found the museum's Committee on Conscience, which works to draw attention to contemporary ]genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
issues, such as the current Darfur crisis.[
Lerman, who spoke several languages, returned to his native Poland following his departure from the museum in 2000.][ There he campaigned for a proper memorial for his family members (both his parents perished in Belzec), as well as the other estimated 500,000 Jews who died at the ]Belzec extermination camp
Belzec (English: or , Polish: , approximately ) was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major p ...
.[ The existing Communist era memorial, which stood in a former garbage dump, made no mention of Jewish Holocaust victims.][ Lerman raised approximately 5 million dollars to build a new memorial by teaming up with the Polish government and the ]American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...
.[
Miles Lerman spoke at the dedication of the new Belzec memorial, which was held on June 3, 2004, telling the story of 9 year old Deborah Katz, one of the death camp's estimated 500,000 to 600,000 victims.
]
Death
Miles Lerman died at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, on January 22, 2008, at the age of 88.[ He was buried in Alliance Cemetery in ]Vineland, New Jersey
Vineland is a City (New Jersey), city and the most populous municipality in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. Bridgeton, New Jersey, Bridgeton and Vineland are the two principal cities of the ...
.[
He was survived by his wife, Chris, whose real name is Krysia Rozalia Laks, his daughter, philanthropist Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer; his son David and his brother, Jona.][
]
References
External links
Miles Lerman
Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Committee on Conscience
Vineland Daily Journal: Lerman recalled as vocal Holocaust survivor, Jewish history activist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerman, Miles
1920 births
2008 deaths
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Jewish partisans
Museum founders
Polish resistance members of World War II
People from Tomaszów Lubelski County
People from Vineland, New Jersey
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
20th-century American philanthropists
Polish emigrants to the United States