Holocaust Museum Houston Digital Newsletter November 2015

LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dear HMH Family and Friends,

that is highlighting 80 destroyed communities from an historical perspective. Currently planned to be located in The Boniuk Library, a flat-screen touch television will provide Museum visitors with a map of where the city was located, research about that particular city’s history, a description of the corresponding Houston survivor and fascinating photographs from the HMH archives and a map of the HMH roofline enabling a visitor to locate where a specific city is remembered on the HMH slope. This project is unique to Houston and the United States. Once completed, we will be the only Holocaust museum in the nation that has this reference material available digitally online and on- site in this format, with such a personal reflection of Houston survivor legacies. “Honoring the survivors’ legacy” is part of the HMH Museum’s mission statement. We honor the past so that we may act in hope for the future, and we invite you to join us as we expand our service to our community. The future is bright at HMH.

It is my privilege to share with you the Holocaust Museum Houston 2014-2015 Gratitude Report. This year has been one of renewal and restoration at the Museum with many new initiatives centered on protecting our history and providing new opportunities to learn and explore the rich fabric of Houston survivor legacies in the form of oral testimonies and archival material. We are constantly challenged by the passage of time within our permanent collections to secure and conserve our precious objects. At the same time, we strive to allow this valuable history to be easily accessed by the public, teachers and researchers. To accomplish this, HMH initiated during 2014-2015, a three- year contract with The USC Shoah Foundation to preserve, index and digitize our 281 oral testimony videotape collection. This allows the data from each oral testimony to be protected as well as utilized in the future within the Museum and on our website, providing instant accessibility. Once completed, visitors no longer will be required to visit the library in person to access this rich source of history. In addition, HMH will not risk losing these testimonies due to the videotapes dilapidation over time. I am so pleased about this initiative being funded (a total of $556,000) in partnership with generous foundations, private donors and a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Preservation of these tapes will provide in perpetuity the important lessons of the Holocaust and protect the wonderful Houston survivor oral testimonies for all to listen and learn from. In addition, thanks to the generosity of Edith Mincberg, a member of our Board of Trustees, we have embarked on the second phase of our extremely important Destroyed Communities Project. You have seen the defining slope outside the Museum that contains tiles that bear the names of communities whose entire Jewish culture and lifestyle were destroyed during the Holocaust. We have commenced working on a digitally based software program

KELLY J. ZUNIGA, Ed.D. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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GRATITUDE REPORT 2015