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Atlanta Hawks

Hawks take 'surreal' trip to Holocaust Memorial Museum

Jeff Zillgitt
USA TODAY Sports
Hawks staff members and players saw "The Tower of Faces" exhibit Friday at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

WASHINGTON — Elton Brand leaned in, rapt with attention, as the tour guide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum explained the rise of Nazi Germany.

"What did the opposition party do?" the Atlanta Hawks power forward asked, full of questions. Later, the guide asked a group of Hawks players about whom Nazi leaders had given significant support. Forward DeMarre Carroll correctly answered "teachers," because of their influence on young minds.

The Hawks visited the museum Friday during a road trip to the capital. And the team activity was made even more meaningful by the presence of Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson's mother-in-law, Irene Boyarsky, a concentration camp survivor. Levenson and wife Karen also joined the group.

"It was powerful," Brand said. "What hit me the most was the atrocities were not too long ago. There are still survivors, and I met two of them. That's surreal to me."

Before the tour started, Levenson addressed the team, introduced Boyarsky, 85, and played a short clip of her talking in a video recorded in 1998 for the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation Institute's visual history archive.

In the 2-hour, 36-minute, 11-second video, Boyarsky detailed her experience from her time in a Jewish ghetto in Hungary to a concentration camp in Austria to her liberation to her life in the U.S. In the video, Boyarsky, who lost two brothers but reunited with her parents, said, "Hitler did not succeed."

Hawks legend and executive Dominique Wilkins meets Irene Boyarsky, a concentration camp survivor and the mother-in-law of Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson.

Levenson and business partner Ed Peskowitz help fund the museum's youth outreach program, and products of that program served as tour guides for the Hawks. The Hawks went through the entire museum, pausing at key exhibits such as "The Tower of Faces," depicting Jewish families from a European village, and "Shoes," a collection of 4,000 shoes from victims.

"I think everyone should come here because of the lessons this place teaches and the lessons all of us have to learn," Levenson said. "Having them come here and having them see the faces of bigotry and hate, it's important. For them to learn lessons of this museum and of the Holocaust means a lot to me."

Hawks players, coaches and staffers, including Hall of Famer and team vice president Dominique Wilkins, came along, and the Hawks joined a handful of teams, including the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs, who have toured the museum. Heat guard Ray Allen had been multiple times with teams and by himself.

Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer started planning this visit shortly after the Hawks hired him last year but was not aware of Levenson's connection to the Holocaust and museum until Atlanta general manager Danny Ferry told him.

"Mike and Danny stress player development," Levenson said. "It's a really important part of what we're trying to do in terms of building a championship culture. But they define player development more broadly than just improving your three-point shot. They really think about it as improving the whole person."

Wilkins examines "Shoes," an exhibit showcasing footwear from concentration camps.

Budenholzer has been to the museum multiple times, both with the Spurs as an assistant coach and on his own.

"I know how powerful the museum can be," he said. "We want individuals who care about what's going on or what's happened in the world besides just basketball. We learn from history and we learn from what's going on today and hopefully in some small way we can make sure things like that never happen again. We also want to be a group that cares about one another."

Hawks center Al Horford, who is out for the season, made the trip and after the visit tweeted, "Life changing experience today at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington."

"It was a chance to go more in-depth," Horford said. "You learn about the Holocaust in school, and I love history. I've read a lot about it. But being able to go through museum — it's so well thought-out — I was able to learn so much. I didn't expect that powerful images, and I was captivated by the people I met who survived."

Horford didn't know Levenson's mother-in-law was a survivor until Friday.

"It gave me goosebumps," he said.

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