Holocaust Museum Houston
The Houston Holocaust Museum is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust that opened in 1996 in Houston, Texas. It is part of the Houston Museum District. The museum is the fourth largest of its kind in the United States. Its mission is to raise public awareness of the dangers of prejudice, hatred and violence in the Holocaust. It also shows that these threats are still very important. An important use of the museum is the educational program. It consists of programs for teachers or students and an academic program. The teachers’ program helps teachers to integrate the subject of the Holocaust into their lessons. The museum’s Curriculum Trunks program, available throughout the United States, provides teachers with multimedia tools such as videos, posters, CDs, CD-ROMs, maps, books and lesson plans to make lessons as informative as possible. In addition, the institution offers competitions for students as part of the student program, such as the annual “Yom HaShoah Art and Writing Competition”. Members of the Houston Holocaust Museum have access to the Boniuk Library, which has more than 5,000 books on the Holocaust, the post-Holocaust period, Jewish history, World War II, and other related subjects. The library also houses the HMH archive and the HMH oral history project. The archive contains various objects, documents, photographs and film rolls. In addition, there are more than 250 recorded testimonies of Holocaust survivors, witnesses, liberators and members of the Hitler Youth. The museum has both permanent and changing exhibitions. An important part of the permanent exhibit, titled “Witness: Community Remembers,” are eyewitness accounts of survivors in the greater Houston area. At the beginning of the exhibition, the visitor learns about Jewish life and culture in Europe before the war. Authentic materials, artifacts, photographs and documents reveal Nazi propaganda and the path to the “Final Solution”. This exhibit also includes memories of the resistance of many people, such as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Prisoners’ Uprising, and “Operation Texas”, the later concession of American President Lyndon B. Johnson to Jewish refugees. At the end of the exhibition, two present reports are shown to the visitor in the form of films. These stories come from survivors, liberators, and witnesses who moved to the Houston area after the war.
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum contains the Education Center, the Morgan Family Center, the Lack Family Memorial Room, and Eric Alexander’s Garden of Hope. The library is located in the Education Center. The Morgan Family Center includes administrative offices, two additional galleries for traveling exhibits, an HMH classroom and a movie theater. The Lack Family Memorial Room is a peaceful place to relax and meditate. Eric Alexander’s Garden of Hope was dedicated to the half a million children who perished during the Holocaust. The museum offers a variety of opportunities for volunteers. They can work as assistants in the library, administrative offices, reception or bookstore. Austrian soldiers can perform a funeral ceremony. Since 1995, the museum has presented the Lyndon Baines Johnson Award for Moral Courage, named after the 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson to people who acted against injustice with special personal responsibility, commitment and courage. The award is usually given once a year. Previous winners have included Miep Gies, Edgar Bronfman, Steven Spielberg, Colin Powell, Lloyd Bentsen, Bob Dole, the Kingdom of Denmark and John McCain. Don’t forget to check out this place in Houston too.
The Houston Holocaust Museum opened its doors in March 1996 with a mission to educate students and the public about the dangers of prejudice and hatred in society. Since then, passionate notes, poems, artwork and other gifts from school students and adults have confirmed the life-changing thoughts that just one visit to this unique institution evokes. In 1981, Holocaust survivor and longtime Houston resident Sieg Izakson had an epiphany. After attending an international gathering of Holocaust survivors in Israel, Izakson realized that her peers were getting old, and when they died, their stories and memories of unchecked prejudice would accompany them. He returned to Houston convinced that the city needed a Holocaust education center and a memorial that would preserve the memory of the victims and the stories of the survivors for future generations. On March 3, 1996, just 13 years after Izakson dreamed up the idea, the entrance to the Houston Holocaust Museum was officially opened, with Izakson proclaiming, “This means the Holocaust story is not going away.” After a $34 million expansion, the museum reopened in June 2019 after more than doubling in size to 57,000 square feet. The new three-story building, the nation’s fourth largest Holocaust museum and fully bilingual in English and Spanish, has a welcome center, four permanent galleries and two temporary exhibition galleries, classrooms, a research library, a cafeteria, and a 187-seat indoor museum. theater and a 175-seat outdoor amphitheater. The museum has more than 50 screens, a mini theater and interactive terminals. They envision a society that transforms ignorance into respect for human life, that remembers the Holocaust and affirms individual responsibility for the collective actions of society.
The Houston Holocaust Museum is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jewish and other innocent victims, and honoring the legacy of the survivors. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, they teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy. The Houston Holocaust Museum builds a more humane society by promoting responsible behavior, civility, and the pursuit of social justice. To build a more just institution, the Houston Holocaust Museum strives to integrate diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion into their museum practices. The core principles of their vision, mission and public value statements guide their decision-making, program design and how they develop their leaders. They welcome everyone as they support and participate in the people and diverse communities they serve. If you are ever in need of home renovation or repair, click here.
