Contact: Kyle Riley For Stone Ward         
501.604.6160
kriley@stoneward.com  

Nancy Knight Director, Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art
901.523.ARTS
nancy.knight@belzmuseum.org 
  
Internationally-Recognized Holocaust Collection
Sets Three-Day Tour in Memphis
Award-winning postal memorabilia exhibit provides
paper trail of Nazi persecution    

Thirty years ago, a Pennsylvania stamp collector set out to uncover an emotionally-charged paper trail portraying one the tragedy and persecution of the Holocaust.  The collection has grown to more than 250 pieces of Holocaust related materials - stamps, postcards, letters, manuscripts - that provide a painful, yet awakening reminder of the historical connection made through written word.    
        
The collection, known as the Spungen Holocaust Postal Collection, now travels the country along with collector and philatelist Danny Spungen. Memphians will have the opportunity to view the exhibit March 28-30 at the following locations:

• Saturday, March 28: National Civil Rights Museum-Materials available for viewing 1-2 p.m. Lecture begins at 2 p.m. (Free with regular museum admission)
• Sunday, March 29: Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art-Materials available for viewing Noon – 2 p.m. Lecture 2 p.m.-3 p.m. (Free and open to the public)   
• Monday, March 30: The University of Memphis Ned R. McWherter Library Rotunda-Materials available for viewing 1:30-2:30 p.m. Lecture 2:30-3:30 p.m. (Free and open to the public)
• Tuesday, March 31: Memphis Rotary 11:30a.m.-1:30p.m. (Members only)

The Spungen Holocaust Postal Collection three-day tour is sponsored by the Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art and Bornblum Judaic Studies of University of Memphis.  In addition to the public viewings, Spungen will present the collection to the Memphis Rotary Club and students at St. Benedict High School in Cordova. For more information on the Spungen Holocaust Postal Collection, including pictures of many documents in the collection, visit www.spungenfoundation.org.

The Spungen Holocaust Postal Collection, formally known as “The Nazi Scourge: Postal Evidence of the Holocaust and the Devastation of Europe,” is an award-winning, ten-frame collection created by philatelic researcher and author Ken Lawrence who began assembling the material in 1978. The collection is noted by some scholars as among the most important surviving evidence of Nazi desecration and includes Holocaust materials related to stamps, covers, postcards, letters, bank note forgeries and manuscripts from concentration camps and Jewish ghettos.  The collection now contains a dozen examples of the 5-, 10-, 20- and 50- pound counterfeit Bank of England notes created by slave laborers during "Operation Bernhard," the Nazis' failed plot to undermine England's economy and the subject of the recent motion picture, The Counterfeiters.

In April 2008, the collection was acquired by the Florence and Laurence Spungen Foundation. Foundation board member Danny Spungen continues adding materials to the collection and travels the country advocating Holocaust awareness. 

The Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation was established in 2006 by Florence and Laurence Spungen and focuses its grant making on health related issues, especially cancer research, care and treatment and Jewish causes.