Jay M. Ipson

Jay M. Ipson ( born June 5, 1935 in Kaunas, Lithuania as Jacob Ipp ) is a Lithuanian- American Holocaust survivor and co-founder and director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond ( Virginia).

Life

Childhood during the Nazi era

Jacob Ipp was born as the son of Jewish couple Israel and Eta ( Edna ) Ipp in the Lithuanian Kovno (Kaunas). In 1941, the then brought 6 -year-old with his family in the erected by the Nazis in the ghetto Kovno. One day in 1943, Jacob and his mother were "selected" along with 5,000 other Jews from the ghetto. Thanks to an acquaintance with the Jewish ghetto police they could, however, be released from the group and survived. Shortly after Jacob and his parents escaped from the ghetto at night.

They found refuge with the Catholic peasant family Paskauskas. Six months she waited without daylight in a cave (about 3.5 m long, 2.7 m wide and 1 m high), which could be achieved through a long tunnel, until the liberation by the Russians out. In the end, 13 people hidden in this cave. Jacob was at this time 8 years old. The farmer and his wife who had supplied during the entire time, were posthumously awarded after the Second World War by the Israeli Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

Emigration to the USA

After the war, leaving Jacob and his parents Lithuania in Munich, where Jacob's father took a job with the Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations ( UNRRA ). Related helped them to emigrate to the United States, where they arrived in Richmond, Virginia on June 12, 1947. In order to better integrate into American society, they changed their family name from Ipp in Ipson. Jacob was at that time 12 years old.

Jay M. Ipson joined with 18 years volunteered for the U.S. Army and tried to lead a normal life. He studied accounting at the University of Richmond in 1959 and married the daughter of a car - owner workshops and started to work in their operation. He later founded the American Parts Company his own company in Richmond.

Virginia Holocaust Museum

In the 1980s, Ipson began to speak in schools about his experiences during the Holocaust. Regularly he left already by 6 clock in the morning the house to keep time for the start of school a lecture and then drove to work, to friends he made ​​the suggestion that it would be easier to let the arriving school classes.

In 1997, Ipson with Mark E. Fetter and Al Rosenbaum a corresponding exhibition besides the local synagogue Temple Beth El. Thus, the Virginia Holocaust Museum was born. Since the premises were too small because of the great interest they were looking for a larger building. With the support of Congressman Eric Cantor, a former tobacco factory was set as the new site of the museum are available Ipson 2001. Only with large financial and time costs, the museum was re- opened in 2003. Since then, the Virginia Holocaust Museum was expanded and has seen more than 175,000 visitors since its inception. 2007, it celebrated its 10th anniversary.

After several years of efforts Ipson could reach 2009 that the Virginia Holocaust Museum received a during the Holocaust in a church in Vilna (Vilnius) hidden Torah scroll. Since its extensive restoration it is in the synagogue of the museum.

Awards

Was awarded the " First Freedom Award " Jay M. Ipson the First Freedom Center on January 16, 2001.

He was honored by the FBI in Richmond with the "Director's Community Leadership Award " in 2005.

Jay M. Ipson was awarded by the Austrian Ambassador Christian Prosl for his exemplary commitment to Tolerance Through Education ( motto of the museum ) of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award 2009 ( AHMA ) On May 11, 2010.