First Floor
Morgan Family Welcome Center
Patrons enter the museum via the Morgan Family Welcome Center, which includes an orientation film and exhibition materials in English and Spanish.
Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers
The permanent Holocaust Gallery contains the testimony of Holocaust survivors who later settled in the Houston area, featuring artifacts donated by the survivors, their descendants, liberators, and other collectors. The exhibit also educates visitors about Jewish and non-Jewish resistance efforts, including the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, prisoner revolts, sabotage, the partisan movement, displaced person camps, and life after the Holocaust.
World War II-era Railcar and the 1940s Danish Rescue Boat
Placed next to each other in the Holocaust Gallery is a fishing boat like those used by Danish fishermen to ferry Jewish neighbors to neutral territory and a World War II-era railcar like the ones that transported Jews to concentration camps and killing centers. As part of the museum's expansion, these artifacts were brought inside the permanent Holocaust Gallery to protect them from the elements.
Dimensions in Testimony
USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony exhibition, featuring Houston-area Holocaust survivor William J. "Bill" Morgan, allows visitors to have "virtual conversations" with Holocaust survivors by asking questions of their HD projections, which then answer in real-time via pre-recorded video images. Each recorded interview enables viewers to ask questions of the survivor about their life experiences and hear responses in real-time, lifelike conversation. Questions are answered as if the survivor is in the room, and through AI, the more questions asked, the better the technology becomes. Dimensions in Testimony is housed in the permanent Holocaust Gallery.
Human Rights Gallery
The new Human Rights Gallery will feature educational displays of all UN-recognized genocides as well as tributes to international human rights leaders, including Malala Yousafzai and Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rhona and Bruce Caress Gallery – And Still I Write: Young Diarists on War and Genocide
And Still, I Write: Young Diarists on War and Genocide highlights the diaries of young people who wrote during war and genocide. The Gallery features six interactive diaries stations with 12 diarist stories rotating between them to educate visitors about the very personal stories of the Holocaust, as well as the existing dangers of hatred, prejudice, and apathy. Visitors will be able to access and utilize these electronic diaries, providing them with the unique use of interactive, experiential technology. In addition, the Gallery will include a historical exhibit on Anne Frank.
Two Changing Galleries
The museum also includes two changing galleries for art and photography exhibits. The Central Gallery is naturally located in the center of the museum building. The Josef and Edith Mincberg Gallery is a larger hall for more extensive displays.
Lack Family Memorial Room
The Lack Family Memorial Room is a quiet place for contemplation. It contains a three-part work of art comprising the Wall of Remembrance, the Wall of Tears, and the Wall of Hope. The Memorial Wall is where local Holocaust survivors can commemorate their lost loved ones.
Eric Alexander Garden of Hope
Outside the Memorial Room is a quiet garden known as the Eric Alexander Garden of Hope. It is dedicated to the eternal spirit of children and is in memory of the one and a half million children who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
Second Floor
The Jerold B. Katz Family Butterfly Loft
Suspended as if in flight, the Butterfly Loft sculpture is a kaleidoscope of 1,500 butterflies that connects all three floors of the museum in an organically shaped swarm. Each butterfly represents 1,000 children and together is a memorial to the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust.
The Boniuk Center for the Future of Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide Studies – Second Floor
The Boniuk Center for the Future of Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide Studies provides research and a scholarly forum to consider how to best educate our community and others around the world about the history of the Holocaust.
Samuel Bak Gallery
The museum will debut the nation's largest gallery of artwork by Holocaust survivor and painter Samuel Bak, with more than 130 works in exhibition rotation. The gallery itself is circular, continuously displaying the exceptional work of the artist while teaching children and adults to apply an understanding of the events of the Holocaust and other genocides to their own lives and respond to them successfully by developing social resiliency.