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. 

Ralph Rehbock

Our new Holocaust Museum and Education Center is probably the last to be built with the involvement of living survivors. It is a tribute to those who have devoted their lives to this project while honoring and memorializing our family members who did not survive and those who have not lived to see this magnificent structure become a reality.

We are so proud of the involvement of those many who have dedicated themselves to perpetuating the goals and aspirations of those of us who have lived to witness the grand opening of our dream, not an inanimate object, but a meaningful melding of a building with a heart and soul.

We know that this “House of Education” will live on after we survivors are no longer able to actively tell our stories of survival and loss, and will continue to flourish for and with our children and our children's children. We have created a memorial and much more, an institution which will thrive as an education center devoted to teaching the message of the history and much more. We hope and pray that future generations will understand the significance of this event and learn that such behavior can never be allowed to happen again.