Holocaust Museum Houston

EXHIBITIONS - Holocaust Museum Houston's permanent exhibit, "Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers" is personalized with testimony of Holocaust Survivors who later settled in the Houston area. The Gallery features artifacts donated by Holocaust Survivors, their descendants, liberators, and other collectors and was recently expanded to incorporate two of the Museum's most important artifacts, the World War II-era railcar and the 1940's Danish rescue boat. The Museum added three additional permanent exhibitions in its new facility: the Lester and Sue Smith Human Rights Gallery, And Still I write: Young Diarists on War and Genocide, and the Samuel Bak Gallery & Learning Center. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022 the Museum hosted a variety of temporary exhibits including Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare sparking reflection, conversation and engagement regarding civil liberties and patriotism in the 21st Century using the counterpoint of a time in which art, artistic expression and speech were no longer protected. HOPE: Stories of Houston Survivors offering a video introduction of Houston and Galveston Holocaust Survivors featuring family members' testimonies and/or clips of Survivors telling their stories. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg telling the parallel stories of RBG's remarkable career and the efforts she joined to expand "We the People" to include those long left out of the Constitution's promises.

Holocaust Museum Houston Library Services provides bilingual research materials serving the needs of students and researchers of all ages. The collection houses over 10,000 items relating to the Holocaust, human rights, and genocide. The library also provides access to nearly 300 oral testimonies. These primary-source video interviews tell the stories of people who experienced the Holocaust, including survivors, liberators, and witnesses. Holocaust Museum Houston Visitor and Volunteer Services trains volunteers and docents to enhance the visitor's experience using their knowledge of the galleries and exhibition content. They stand as Museum ambassadors teaching how each of us can emulate upstander behavior. In response to COVID-19, the Museum created virtual tours for classrooms and community groups. Participants can tour the Museum's galleries virtually and interact live with a trained HMH docent.

EDUCATION - Holocaust Museum Houston reached approximately 28,249 students and 656 teachers using a variety of educational programs. The Museum developed a corps of educators to effectively teach about the Holocaust and other genocides by hosting various fellowships where eminent scholars provide historical and academic content while university faculty, as well as Museum staff, provide pedagogical context. Through the Educator in Motion (EIM) program Museum staff travel to schools or conduct long-distance video learning sessions to deliver interactive lessons that incorporate social studies, language arts and fine arts concepts to support student engagement, enhance content knowledge and comprehension and promote the development of individual and civic responsibility. EIM was delivered in English and Spanish through 578 sessions in 28 school districts including 74 schools. The Engines of Change Student Ambassador Program introduces Houston-area high school students to Holocaust history and enables them to better understand current issues and to develop their own informed opinions and voices about the perils of hatred, prejudice and apathy. In response to COVID-19 the Museum created numerous educational videos for teachers to use in their classrooms.

PUBLIC PROGRAMMING - Holocaust Museum Houston offers a variety of lectures, panel discussions and film viewings for public attendance. 80 programs were attended by approximately 10,000 people. Standing in solidarity with Houston's Asian Community, the Museum hosted Moving Forward: Challenging Racism Conference where the history of Asian Americans was considered in light of recent events and participants discussed how we move forward together, beyond racism, to a society that fosters equality and social justice for all. Author Dr. Alan Schlesinger, whose father survived the Holocaust, talked about his father's life with Dee Dee Dochen as they discussed his book, Resilience: The Story of How My Father Survived the Holocaust. Notorious RBG in Song, written by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's daughter-in-law, Patrice Michaels, saluted the life and work of the legal pioneer in a 75-minute dramatic concert.