Here at The Florida Holocaust Museum we are grateful for your support and hope we can count on your continued help in our efforts to teach members of all races and cultures to recognize the inherent worth and dignity of human life.
Thanks to you and other Museum supporters:
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We continue to ensure that the link to the past has not been broken.
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We share the stories of Holocaust Survivors, Rescuers and Liberators with students, teachers and visitors.
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More than 50,000 students in 17 states last year benefited from Teaching Trunks filled with materials that help educators teach the lessons of the Holocaust.
I want to contribute!
“As long as Survivors are with us, which won’t be much longer, they are the heart and soul of the Museum. There wouldn’t be a Museum if it wasn’t for them – they bring truth to the Holocaust so that deniers can’t deny. Their legacy is to keep the stories alive. They are an invaluable treasure to the Museum. When my mother speaks at the Museum or other venues, I notice the tremendous impact she has. It’s not easy, sharing one’s story from the Holocaust. She has to relive those times to tell them. The 2G’s (Second Generation) or the WOW group (Witnesses of the Witness) can prepare to step in when our parents and grandparents can no longer speak. Many of us already have. It becomes our responsibility to keep the stories and memories alive.”
–Charlene Wygodski, Daughter of Survivors (pictured with her mother Mary Wygodski)
“For me, it is passing on the legacy of my grandfather and his brothers who were Jewish Partisans. The exhibit the Museum created – Courage and Compassion – told, through personal stories, objects and documents, how the Bielski Brothers survived, and the hundreds of people they rescued and kept safe. The Florida Holocaust Museum is a teaching museum – we have the privilege of teaching the lessons of the Holocaust to students. It’s important to talk about standing up for yourself and making a difference in the world.”
“I am particularly in debt to the Danish people for being Rescuers and Upstanders – individuals who risked their lives so my parents would survive. We bring children to the Museum and show them examples of what Upstander behavior is, how an individual can stand up for other people. It’s important to know that in a world where so many people looked away, the Danish people did not. There were people who – in spite of the pressures around them to follow something so horrible and negative – were able to do the right thing. The Florida Holocaust Museum recognizes young Upstanders in our community. Through the Museum’s Anne Frank Humanitarian Award, students are honored for their acts of kindness, for their work in hospitals, for volunteering on mission trips, for simply being an advocate for a single other person.”
“The Holocaust has been a part of my life ever since I can remember. My father’s parents were Survivors – I don’t remember a time they weren’t talking to my brother and I about our family and different stories of survival. My grandfather also spent a lot of time emphasizing the good he saw in people. There were non-Jews who were killed saving my family, and those who were hanged because they wouldn’t tell the Nazis where my family was hidden. That’s important to me, to pass that word along. It isn’t just about “never again,” it’s also about spreading the positivity that existed during such a dark time.”
“Human cruelty is a global issue. The most valuable contribution of The Florida Holocaust Museum is in teaching children and adults the lessons learned from the Holocaust and other genocides. It is hoped that if people learn these lessons well, future genocides will be prevented. If, on the other hand, people ignore these lessons, or treat past genocides as matters of mere historical curiosity, the world is more likely to repeat these tragedies. The Museum cannot educate the entire world, but we are doing our part to teach the very important lessons learned from past genocides.”
Every day, we see the impact and importance of our mission reflected in the eyes of those who pass through our Museum doors. There is an ongoing need for educating this generation as well as future generations about the dangers of hatred and discrimination which led to the Holocaust.
We ask you to consider making a contribution to The Florida Holocaust Museum. Your support will help the Museum continue to give tangible tools to this generation and future generations that will lead them to become the citizens, the philanthropists and the Upstanders of tomorrow.
Help us disseminate the tools to prevent future genocides. As we look to the future, we need your help to keep the voices and the lessons of the Holocaust alive. Please take a moment to donate now. Thank you for your support.