Welcome! Thank you for your interest in planning a field trip to the Illinois Holocaust Museum. We offer a variety of docent-led tour options for your students and encourage you to review the options below to determine the best fit for your school and students' needs (PDF available).
The Illinois Holocaust Museum's field trips are offered to schools grades 3-12. Colleges/universities, supplementary programs, non-profit groups, and youth organizations (ages 8 - 22).
All tours align with Common Core Standards
Tour Option Overview:
In Our Voices (Grades 7+)In Our Voices (Grades 7+)
Explore the history of the Holocaust by taking an inquiry-based walk through our Karkomi Permanent Exhibition. Investigate the experiences of Holocaust survivors, witnesses, resistors, and rescuers through artifaces and testimony. Analyze the human and moral implications of individual choice, responsibility, and memory through connecting galleries and themes. Discover what influences our decision to act as bystanders or upstanders.
Your tour may also include stops in other Museum exhibitions
- Temporary Exhibition Gallery
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Familiy Youth Exhibition
- Legacy of Absence Gallery
Whenever possible, the Museum will schedule an eyewitness to the Holocaust from our Speakers' Bureau as part of the field trip.
Length: 3 hours
Times: 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 2:00 (weekdays), 11:00 (weekends), 5:00 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 160 students maximum
Become A Witness (Grades 6+)
Best for Grade 6; recommended for Grades 7 & 8 with limited background knowledge
Learn about the power of one voice to take a stand for positive change. Explore how questions of identity, human behavior, community, and culture connect to an introductory study of the history and lessons of the Holocaust. Topics include pre-war Jewish life, the Kindertransports, and post-war immigration. This tour option includes selected portions of the Karkomi Permanent Exhibition. It does not include the galleries on ghettoization, deportation (the rail car) and life in concentration camps.
Explore the following exhibitions:
• Portions of the Karkomi Permanent Exhibition—Post-War Immigration; Neo-Nazi
March on Skokie 1977-78
• Discussion of artifacts related to pre-war Jewish life, the rise of Nazism, and the
Kindertransports
• Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
• Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Whenever possible, the Museum will schedule an eyewitness to the Holocaust from our Speakers’ Bureau as part of the field trip.
Length: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Times: 10:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 80 students maximum
Memory, Action, Community (Grades 5+)
Best for Grade 5; recommended for Grade 6 with limited background knowledge
Discover ways to become more actively involved in your local and global communities through hands-on activities in Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition. Learn how identity, social responsibility, and community tie into a discussion of universal human and civil rights and introductory study of the Holocaust, including pre-war Jewish life, the Kindertransports, and post-war immigration. This tour option includes selected portions of the Karkomi Permanent Exhibition. It does not include the galleries on ghettoization, deportation (the rail car) and life in concentration camps.
Explore the following exhibitions:
• Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
• Portions of the Karkomi Permanent Exhibition—Post-War Immigration;
Neo-Nazi March on Skokie 1977-78
• Discussion of artifacts related to pre-war Jewish life, the rise of Nazism,
and the Kindertransports
• Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Length: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Times: 10:00, 12:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 80 students maximum
Stand Up, Speak Out (Grades 3+)
Join us for our new Stand Up, Speak Out! tours. Featuring outdoor activities (weather permitting) and tours in the Make A Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition, where students will learn how to develop and build identity, community, and social responsibility.
Explore the following exhibitions:
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
- Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Times: 10:00, 12:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 60 students maximum
Best for Grades 3 & 4
Take A Stand (Grades 3+)
Through hands-on, interactive activities, discover what it takes to care for yourself and others, learn how to speak up for those being bullied, and understand core values of respect, compassion, justice, and citizenship. Develop the strategies and tools necessary to not only identify a problem, but also to identify and overcome any obstacles to solving that problem. This tour option does not include a full tour of the Karkomi Permanent Exhibition.
Explore the following exhibitions:
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
- Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Times: 10:00, 12:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 60 students maximum
Best for Grades 3 & 4
Skokie, IL