The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is a museum located in

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's do ...

, near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. According to the Center's

mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...

, its founding principle is to "Remember the Past; Transform the Future." Its mission is to preserve the legacy of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

by honoring victims' memories and to educate in the service of combating hatred, prejudice and indifference. The Museum fulfills its mission through its collections-based exhibitions and through education programs and other initiatives that promote human rights and the elimination of genocide.

History

The museum began in 1981 as the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois located in a storefront on Main Street in

. The foundation and small museum were established as a response to a Neo-Nazi group's attempt to march through Skokie, in which many

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

had settled in the decades following the atrocities. On April 19, 2009, the museum opened to the public in a new building with festivities including a keynote speech by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

with

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

in attendance. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

spoke through a recorded video message, as did

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...

, president of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Security arrangements at the museum were tightened after the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting At approximately 12:50 p.m. on June 10, 2009, 88-year-old James Wenneker von Brunn entered the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. with a slide-action rifle and fatally shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyr ...

on June 10, 2009. Currently, the museum's volunteers include members of the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace and the

Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service Gedenkdienst is the concept of facing and taking responsibility for the darkest chapters of one's own country's history while ideally being financially supported by one's own country's government to do so. Founded in Austria in 1992 by Andreas Ma ...

(since 2009) that work for the museum.

Take a Stand Center

In 2017, the museum opened the Take a Stand Center, four interactive galleries located within the space of the museum that include interactive

Holograms Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, it ...

of Holocaust survivors. Connected to the holograph theater is an exhibit concerning organizations and individuals that have promoted

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

including the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...

, and such figures as

Ruby Bridges Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegreg ...

and

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pak ...

Architecture

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center 1

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center Room of Remembrance DSCN0009

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center 19 25 Jan 2010 019

The museum's building was designed by

Stanley Tigerman Stanley Tigerman (September 20, 1930 – June 3, 2019) was an American architect, theorist and designer. Biography Early years Tigerman was born into a Jewish family, the only child of Emma (Stern), a typist for the federal government, and Sam ...

. The Interior and Exhibition was co-designed by Yitzchak Mais, a former director of

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

. The first floor Holocaust exhibition is located next to the auditorium, the main entrance hall, information and membership desks, coatroom, gift shop, and library. The upper floor contains the remembrance areas, the art gallery, the upper part of the auditorium, and offices. The basement contains classrooms, an exhibition for children, an exhibition on the building's history, and a conference area. The building's facade is notably two toned, a black half that includes the entrance doors and a white half with the exit doors. This facade is located in a narrow alley and situated so that one cannot view the entire facade from any one location.

Location and access

The museum is located in the northwest corner of Skokie, west of the

Edens Expressway Iens ( nl, Edens) is a small village in Súdwest-Fryslân in the province Friesland of the Netherlands with a population of around 32 in January 2017. History The village was first mentioned in the 13th century as Ederinghe, and means "settlem ...

( I-94). The nearest exit is Old Orchard Road. To the east of the museum is also an abandoned railroad

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

. This right of way is considered for a new CTA Yellow Line extension, with a new terminal station in the proximity of the museum. The museum is already accessible through several bus lines nearby: CTA lines 205 and 54A, and

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US * Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

lines 208 and 422.

References

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, "Skokie Builds to Remember,” The Forward, April 24, 2009.

External links

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center