Heritage Discovery Center

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race examines how the Nazi leadership, in collaboration with individuals in professions traditionally charged with healing and the public good, used science to help legitimize persecution, murder, and ultimately, genocide.

More about the exhibition

The exhibition opened in the second floor galleries of the Heritage Discovery Center on March 1 and will be on display through April 27, and is made possible by the generosity of the Blanche Beerman Holocaust Museum Fund at the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies. Admission to the entire Heritage Discovery Center will be free every Saturday during the exhibition in order to maximize the number of people who see it.

“Deadly Medicine explores the Holocaust’s roots in then-contemporary scientific and pseudo-scientific thought,” explains exhibition curator Susan Bachrach. “At the same time, it touches on complex ethical issues we face today, such as how societies acquire and use scientific knowledge and how they balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the larger community.”

Eugenics theory sprang from turn-of-the-20th-century scientific beliefs asserting that Charles Darwin’s theories of “survival of the fittest” could be applied to humans. Supporters, spanning the globe and political spectrum, believed that through careful controls on marriage and reproduction, a nation’s genetic health could be improved.

The Nazi regime was founded on the conviction that “inferior” races, including the so-called Jewish race, and individuals had to be eliminated from German society so that the fittest “Aryans” could thrive. The Nazi state fully committed itself to implementing a uniquely racist and antisemitic variation of eugenics to “scientifically” build what it considered to be a “superior race.” By the end of World War II, six million Jews had been murdered. Millions of others also became victims of persecution and murder through Nazi “racial hygiene” programs designed to cleanse Germany of “biological threats” to the nation’s “health,” including “foreign-blooded” Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), persons diagnosed as “hereditarily ill,” and homosexuals. In German-occupied territories, Poles and others belonging to ethnic groups deemed “inferior” were also murdered.

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race is made possible through the support of The David Berg Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, The Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Temporary Exhibitions Fund established in 1990, and The Dorot Foundation.

The Blanche Beerman Holocaust Museum Fund of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies is sponsoring the installation of the exhibition in Johnstown. The Beth Sholom Congregation and David A. Glosser Foundation have also provided support. Program partners include the Cambria County Library System and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Media sponsors are WJAC and The Tribune-Democrat.

“Our core exhibition, America: Through Immigrant Eyes, includes the story of Jewish immigration to this area in the late 19th and early 20th century,” said Richard Burkert, president of JAHA. “They were fleeing religious persecution, and many of those who immigrated would have died in the Holocaust had they not been able to leave. So it is fitting that this exhibition is coming to us, and that so many people will be able to see it thanks to the generosity of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.”

Additional educational programming, including lectures, are planned during the temporary exhibition, and will be announced at a later date.

Join us for a relaxed evening at the Heritage Discovery Center’s authentic social club! Featured entertainment is the Ne’er Do Wells, an indie group made up of some of the area’s best-known musicians!

Doors at 5:00, with music starting at 5:30. No cover.

During the March 1-April 27 run of the temporary exhibition Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race, admission to the entire Heritage Discovery Center will be free thanks to the generosity of the Blanche Beerman Holocaust Education Fund at the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.

The exhibition is displayed in the second floor galleries of the Heritage Discovery Center. Parental discretion is advised.

Fran Feyock and Rick Shroeder, licensed Gettysburg battlefield guides, will present this program, which is sponsored by the Johnstown branch of the American Association of University Women. Free and open to the public.

Stop by the Heritage Discovery Center for a mini-workshop on the upcoming exhibit “Johnstown: Where We Work.” Join JAHA Curator Andrew Lang to learn about the exhibit and how you could be a part of it!

Johnstown has a rich work history, built on industry, business, shops, and more. Do you have an interesting work history to share? Do you have work-related objects or photographs you would like to loan? Come tell us about them! We can’t promise we can use everything, but we will consider everything brought to us.

For more information, or if you have questions, contact Andrew Lang at (814) 539-1889, ext. 314, or at alang@jaha.org.

Last Friday moves a week earlier in deference to the Memorial Day holiday! The Birddoggs are well-known local musicians Adam Milkovich and Chris Verbano. Join us for a relaxed evening of acoustic music in our authentic club!

Doors at 5:00, music at 5:30. No cover.

The Johnstown Slavic Festival grows to two days in 2019! Visit the Slavic Festival minisite for more information.