Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Holocaust Museum rises
Design to immerse visitors in stories of horror, hope
The museum will immerse visitors in stories of horror — and hope — with audio and video from victims and rescuers but also artifacts from World War II, such as a Sherman tank that helped liberate survivors of the Nazi death camps.
DANIA BEACH – The South Florida Holocaust Museum in Dania Beach has unveiled its conceptual design as it gears up for a 2020 opening.
When visitors first walk through the door, they’ll see a massive Sherman tank that was used to help liberate survivors. Later, as they make their way through the museum, they’ll come upon a Polish rail car that ferried prisoners to death camps.
Haunting stories told by more than 2,500 survivors, liberators and rescuers on both video and audiotape will serve as the heart of the 15,000-square-foot museum.
“We are starting the story with the liberation, then we’ll begin to look backwards and get into the context of the rail car,” said architect Patrick Gallagher, who is designing the museum at 303 N. Federal Highway.
Gallagher has designed several museums with a focus on Jewish history and the Holocaust, including the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. The South Florida Holocaust Museum will be his first Florida project.
This museum in Dania Beach is being designed with the next generation in mind, Gallagher said.
“We will have a core museum but we’ll also have a digital learning center that will take the lessons of the Holocaust and translate it into ways young people can understand and cope with what’s happening in their lives today,” he said. “When they look at these events through the lens of the Holocaust, it will give them some sense of understanding of how this tragic event can cast a new light on their lives.”
The museum will be divided into themed sections, including “Life Before the Holocaust,” “Hitler’s Rise to Power,” “Resistance” and “Liberation.”
“You don’t have to explore this museum in a specific pattern,” said Rositta Kenigsberg, president of the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center. “You will be able to go through the museum at your own pace.”
Kenigsberg said more money needs to be raised before the $10 million museum opens, but declined to say how much. She is hoping to open by 2020.
The center’s building has been open for nearly two years and currently hosts private tours of the 30-ton tank and rail car. Officials offer Holocaust awareness programs and organize “Student Awareness Days” in local schools.
The museum upgrades will be done in stages as donations and grants come in, Kenigsberg said.
“A lot of moving parts have to come together,” Gallagher said. “We have to go through two phases of design, construction drawings, bidding, finding fabricators and developers.”
Come February, the center will host its first traveling exhibition, “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda.”
The exhibition, created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, runs from Feb. 11 through May 6. For more information, call 954-929-5690.