It's an unlikely story forged by a shared experience of prejudice and suppression.

The story, about two different groups of people pulled together by a unique set of circumstances, comes together when the unimaginable to happens.

Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow, a special exhibition at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, examines the link between Jewish refugee scholars from Europe and black students in the segregated South. It chronicles the stories of Jewish professors, who escaped the German purge of academics and  scientists during Hitler's time, and how shows how they found refuge among the black students who experienced discrimination in the racially-divided America.

The exhibit, which opened on February 4, 2011 to coincide with the start of Black History, lasts until May 31, 2011. The traveling exhibition was created by the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.