The Grossmont College Library in El Cajon has been selected as one of only 50 libraries across the United States to host the traveling exhibition "Americans and the Holocaust," a collaboration between the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association.

The exhibition, which spans 1,100 square feet, will be open to the public free of charge from April 14 through May 21, 2026, at Grossmont College, 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon.

Rather than focusing solely on European events, the exhibition turns the mirror back on the United States, examining the motives, pressures and fears that shaped the American response to Nazism, war and genocide during the 1930s and 1940s. Through primary source materials, it challenges the persistent assumption that Americans were unaware of or indifferent to the persecution of European Jews as it unfolded.

The Grossmont College Library received a $3,000 cash grant to fund a series of free public programs to accompany the exhibit. The schedule includes a featured presentation by Lou Pechi, one of San Diego County's most prominent Holocaust survivors, as well as academic lectures, author talks, poetry readings, film screenings and artistic performances.

The exhibition is supported locally by an advisory committee chaired by Ammar Campa-Najjar and includes community leaders from organizations such as The Butterfly Project, Combat Antisemitism Now, the Foundation for Grossmont & Cuyamaca Colleges, and the Jewish Community Foundation. Grossmont College Interim President Dr. Pamela Luster encouraged community members to "visit our campus and engage with this moment in history that is still deeply relevant today." Detailed schedules and registration information are available at libguides.grossmont.edu/AATH.