Staff Writer

Much on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. is jarring, but one sight in particular stunned Esther Finder: a teddy bear named Refugee.

Finder, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, who plays an active role in the community, and a friend were leaving the museum following a meeting of the Association of Holocaust Organizations when she happened upon the stuffed animal, which was on sale for $12.95 in the museum's book store.

"We saw this little teddy bear," recalled Finder, a Rockville resident. "We both stopped and looked at it and said, 'What's that? Why is there a teddy bear?' I couldn't understand why there's a teddy bear [for sale] in the Holocaust museum; I didn't get it."

That teddy bear (modeled after a bear given to a child survivor) might be a symbol of a growing disconnect between members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council ‹ the museum's main governing board ‹ and the survivor community, according to a group of survivors' children who recently penned a missive to President Barack Obama, urging him to consider council appointees more carefully.

The council ‹ new members are soon to be appointed by Obama ‹ has become a political plum, awarded mainly to those with fat wallets and others who seek to pad their resumes, the letter writers argue.

"The sense we get is that you have to know the right people in order to be appointed, and the actions of the [George W. Bush] administration prove it," said Finder, an author of the letter who serves as president of The Generation After and is a member of the coordinating council of Generations of the Shoah International, both groups that cater to the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Among those appointed to the council by Bush are Michael Chertoff, former secretary of homeland security, and Joshua Bolton, Bush's chief of staff.

Most members of the 55-person council lack the worldview shaped by a lifetime spent with a survivor, say second generation activists who were interviewed. Though each expressed deep love and respect for the museum, they admitted to being concerned about its future without their input.

"We never hear from" those on the council, said Finder. "Nothing from anybody."

The museum, wrote the activists in a letter dated Feb. 9, is a "place we hope to help guide and influence as it enters into a world with achingly few first-hand witnesses ‹ our parents. ... We are eager and willing to help set the direction of this remarkable museum as it continues its work in this very different world."

Anat Bar-Cohen, a Bethesda resident who serves as an executive board member for The Generation After, elaborated on the missive in an interview: "We haven't felt that the museum has really reached out to the second and third generations" for their input about the museum's governance and ultimate direction, she said. "We want to ensure the legacy and depth of research on the Shoah is maintained and goes on."

In fact, noted Bar-Cohen, "some survivors have said they feel the museum is about them without them." Moreover, as the survivor population inches closer to extinction, she wondered aloud: "Where will the place of the Holocaust be in the Holocaust museum as time goes on?"

Martin Weiss, an 81-year-old survivor from Bethesda, said he "personally" didn't view the perceived lack of second generation activists to be "much of a problem," though he also noted, "I can understand their argument. ... You do have to hand over the torch in a sense."

As for those currently appointed to the council, Weiss described them as "nice, decent people who are trying to do a good job."

Asked how exactly the council has suffered from the absence of those in their group, both Finder and Bar-Cohen related the same story.

After the USHMM become one of a number of international repositories for millions of digital Holocaust records formerly housed in Bad Arolson, Germany, it came under fierce criticism for limiting accessibility to the archives. (Twenty on-site computers were connected to the database, and the bulk of those seeking information were asked to fill out a form.)

Generation After members such as Finder and Bar-Cohen said they immediately asked museum officials to release as many names from the archive as possible, even before all the materials had been fully codified.

"We made it very clear that we'd like to be involved with how this is rolled out," said Bar-Cohen. "We wanted to tell them how important the existence of a name is."

For the most part, museum officials didn't understand that, recalled Finder. "They didn't get it. They're looking at it in terms of a very professional perspective; they're academics. We look at it from our family's perspective. ... The second generation can be that bridge to help connect the two."

Finder added: "We have insights that the general public won't have. ... What if you were a cancer survivor? Wouldn't you want other cancer survivors on a board that makes policy?"

While the group has yet to receive a formal response from the White House, Shin Inouye, director of specialty media, said: "The president looks forward to appointing the most qualified members to the Council." Inouye declined to comment on the specifics of the letter.

Brad Wine, a council member, defended Bush's appointments.

"Do you think Michael Chertoff needed an appointment to the Holocaust museum to feel good about himself? No!" said Wine, who is active in Republican Party politics and was appointed to the council by Bush. "These individuals have a unique and unparalelled skill set."

Joel Geiderman, the council's vice chair, whose mother, Helen, is a Holocaust survivor, dismissed the GSI letter, labeling the notions "insulting."

"It seems like it's a self-serving effort by these people to get on the council," said Geiderman, scoffing at the notion that the children of survivors are underrepresented.

Seven council members are the children of survivors, according to a museum spokesperson.

"I've been driven all of my life to ensure the history of my mother and all those who perished" in the Shoah, said Geiderman, who was appointed to the council in 2002 by Bush.

"Some of us never chose to belong to membership organizations," such as GSI or Generation After, Geiderman added. "We were born into a club, we don't need to join it."

The council, he said, is strengthened by the diversity of its membership, which includes academics, former politicians, financial experts and others.

However, Martin Goldman, former director of survivor affairs for the museum who retired about five years ago, said that just being born to a survivor doesn't make one part of the second generation movement.

"These folks claim to represent the second generation because they are second generation, but they don't really have the pulse of the second generation because they're not in constant dialogue" with the groups, said Goldman, who did not sign the letter, but agrees with its sentiments.

Geiderman, however, was confident in his birthright: "I know how they [the other children of survivors] feel because that's how I feel."