To me, collecting is about telling stories. Stories about what was important to a particular society in a particular time. Stories about people who made a difference—on an individual level or a global scale, for better or for worse. Stories about why the world is the way it is. Warnings of what it could descend into if we’re not careful, and idyllic visions of what it could be if we are.
My uncle, Jerry Degenstein, was killed in WWII, which devastated my grandparents. They charged me, when I was young, with finding some way to keep his memory alive. I’d always been a collector of sorts—baseball cards, action figures, and other kid stuff. But when my grandparents endowed me with this purpose, I finally had a clear focus for my instinct to hold onto important items.
It became my purpose to keep not only Uncle Jerry’s memory alive, but the memories of the tens of millions of people killed in WWII—including the six million Jews who were murdered in the Nazis’ concentration camps. Those people can no longer speak for themselves, but in collecting—and sharing—images and artifacts from that era, perhaps I can bring their voices to light and empower them to share their wisdom and their lessons with the generations that came after them.
Our collection is just as personal for my wife, Michelle, as it is for me. The majority of her family was murdered in the Holocaust, though her father escaped, as did a small number of her cousins—one was a “hidden child,” and another was instrumental in helpingJewish families escape Nazi-occupied Paris.
So, with our shared mission in mind, what began as a quest to preserve our families’ legacies grew into a world-renowned collection of thousands of WWII-era photos, stamps, and artifacts (the vast majority with Jewish cultural significance)that would otherwise be lost to history. But a collection of items is useless without the stories behind them, so Michelle and I dedicate the vast majority of our time and energy to putting these artifacts in context for as many audiences as we can reach, from museum exhibits around the world to presentations for professional organizations, historical societies, and middle schools.
Why spend my retirement years doing all this? I believe it’s my responsibility as a human being. It’s my responsibility to use my time, treasure, and talent to learn and understand what hate, bigotry, and apathy can do to individuals and to the world in general. Further, it’s my responsibility to share what I learn, equipping others to join me in ensuring nobody ever repeats—or comes close to repeating—the barbaric atrocities the Nazis perpetrated in WWII.
This mission feels particularly critical at a time when anti-Jewish sentiment and violence against Jews are rising dramatically in the United States.
That’s where this website comes in. Initially, this project was conceptualized as little more than a means of showcasing my collection. But as we worked through the process of planning which items to share and what to say about them, I returned to that same fundamental truth of collecting: It’s about telling stories. Of course, my collection is made up of stories. Every image, every artifact tells a story. But I realized I wanted to use this platform to tell a broader story, asking readers to examine Jewish history — from the horrors of the Holocaust to the inspirational stories of Jewish cultural leaders, athletes, artists, scientists, and more — in a broader, deeper, and more nuanced way than they ever have.
The Jewish stories we’ll tell here will cover a variety of themes. Most notably, these two:
The Holocaust: And not just the piles of bodies we’ve all seen countless times in history class, but how it happened, who were the heroes, who we lost, and how we carry their legacies today. We’ll explore the steps taken by the Nazis to escalate their hatred and political ambition into the state-sanctioned, systematic murder of six million Jewish people — and the parallels between Nazi behavior during the Holocaust and the hatred, bigotry, and propaganda we still see today.
We’ll also highlight how the same circumstances that brought out the absolute worst inhumanity also brought out the best. We’ll shine a light on the efforts—both individual and systemic—to hide and extricate the Jewish people and thwart theNazis’ climb to power, and we’ll ask the question: How can individuals and organizations resist efforts by special interests to oppress minority groups in today’s society?
Jewish Heroes. Too often, the Jewish people are remembered only as victims. This platform will aim to change that narrative by highlighting not only heroes of the Holocaust (such as Irena Sendler and Janusz Korczak) but Jewish heroes in every sphere, from Arthur Szyk’s anti-fascist art (and Dr. Seuss’s, too) to Barney Ross’s boxing legacy and Rube Goldberg’s delightfully complex machines...and beyond. There are Jewish heroes in every corner of history, and by telling their stories, we hope to flip the “victim” script and combat the anti-Jewish sentiments growing far too loud yet again today.
As you read, I hope that you deepen your understanding of the Holocaust and of what was done to Jewish people (and other “enemies of state”) during those years— and of Jewish history and culture in general. But more importantly, I hope that your empathy grows, you start to look for opportunities to preserve and share your own stories, and you commit to taking action on the side of humanity.
Michelle and I believe the world can be better and needs to be better, and our goal is for our collection to be a catalyst for harmony by encouraging readers to become upstanders, in ways large and small, against bigotry, hate, and oppression in their everyday lives.
- Gregg Philipson