Holocaust Museum Houston
is dedicated to educating
people about the Holocaust,
remembering the 6 million
Jews and other innocent
victims and honoring the
survivors’ legacy. Using the
lessons of the Holocaust
and other genocides, we
teach the dangers of hatred,
prejudice and apathy.
GRATITUDE REPORT 2015 29
Holocaust MuseumHouston is a space of difference, a place where
history and memory are mined and interwoven. The Museum must
continue to find ways to open doors to possibility that provide
entry points into a dialogue with a difficult past, a conversation
with the present and hope for the future. The Museum must
preserve the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and honor
the survivors’ legacy to accomplish that task.
By focusing on such fascinating and thought-provoking events
in history, such as the Armenian Genocide and the internment of
Japanese-Americans in the United States during World War II, as
well as the events of 9/11 with the moving exhibit “Ground Zero:
Never Forget,” the Museum used a variety of methods to achieve
that goal during the past fiscal year.
Special exhibitions included:
• “Birthrights Left Behind”
• “Ground Zero 360: Never Forget”
• “Life: Survivor Portraits”
• “The Rescuers: Picturing Moral Courage”
• “Soul Survivors”
• “The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust: One Man
Takes a Stand” and
• “The Art of Gaman”
To complement the exhibit lineup, the Museum also hosted
a variety of public programs featuring internationally known
speakers such as Dr. Richard Hovannisian and Dr. Taner Akcam
on the Armenian Genocide, Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt on the
preservation of Auschwitz and Alexandra Zapruder on memory
and writing in the Holocaust realm.
The Museum also presented films such as “Carl Lutz: The
Forgotten Hero,” “The Untold Story of Ralph Carr and the
Japanese” and “The Last Mentsch.”
Each January, the Museum joins with the American Jewish
Committee to host International Holocaust Remembrance
Day. The 2015 event honored Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish
humanitarian who worked in Budapest during World War II to
rescue Jews from the Holocaust.
The Museum also brings hundreds of Houstonians together to
remember the lost families of our local survivors each April during
Yom HaShoah.
And the Museum’s two largest events brought large crowds
to help the Museum continue to teach the dangers of hatred,
prejudice and apathy. Holocaust Survivor Edith Mincberg and
REMEMBRANCE
her late husband Josef were honored with the Guardian of the
Human Spirit Award at the Museum’s annual luncheon, which
raised more than $730,000. Diplomats Dr. Ho Feng-Shan and
Chiune Sugihara received the 2015 Lyndon Baines Johnson
Moral Courage award at the Museum’s annual dinner, which
brought in almost $1.3 million.
Silk dress worn by one-year-old Chaja Verveer, who was separated from
her mother and placed in hiding with another family.