Witness to the Holocaust

Survivors who worked to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center reflect on what the new museum means to them. 

Janine Oberrotman 

For many years after the war I felt deep despair in the silence about Shoah that surrounded me. The murdered ones were neither remembered nor mourned by the world except for those who were close to them. But what about those who died anonymously without families to mourn them? Today in the symbolism of the new Museum I breathe freely. Those who died will be remembered and accounted for not only in the artifacts, the art, the library, but in the heart of its most dedicated and competent staffers I have ever encountered in any organization and in the enthusiasm of its army of volunteers. I, the survivor, feel infinitely grateful to all the people who made this Museum possible. I can die in peace. The legacy will live and go forth not only within the walls of the Museum and in its many programs but, hopefully, in the hearts and minds of the young and the old who will visit it, who will remember and, hopefully, use their knowledge in Tikkun Olam.