A first look inside New England’s first Holocaust museum, now under construction in Boston. The project aims to create a powerful space for education, reflection, and remembrance, honoring the victims and survivors of the Holocaust while teaching future generations about the dangers of hate and intolerance.
Ever walked by Boston Common recently, you've likely heard construction and
also seen it. Well, crews are working to build the area's first Holocaust Museum.
Boston 25 News reporter Liz Azara gives us a look at the progress. These are
the central stairs and the visitor will take their journey through their
experience on these stairs here. One year into the construction of Holocaust
Museum Boston
and the goal remains the same for co founder Jody Kipnis to take you on an
educational journey back in time. So you can see from this, you know, we're
really a part of history here from this location. We have the freedom trail, we
have the statehouse, we have the Park Street Church, we have the embrace
statue, we have the burial ground. I mean, I couldn't think of a better
location for this museum. The location overlooking the statehouse is symbolic
to forcing future visitors to think about their own freedoms. Hitler came
to power because democracy broke down and what we want the visitor
understand is what is freedom? What does that mean to you? June 4th is
recognized as National Holocaust Survivor Day and in a now post
survivor era, visitors can expect an immersive experience using technology
to interact with holographs of real Holocaust survivors. So we want the
visitors not just to come in and have us tell them what to think. We want
them to think deeply
and on the fourth floor, a historic rail car believed to be used during the
holocaust will be surrounded by glass invisible from Tremont Street. So as
the visitors are walking the freedom trail, they're going to watch our
visitors walk onto the rail car, not exit
and working with the tour guides and meet boston really thinking about what
story do we want to tell outside about this rail car? Kipnis says they aren't
just building a museum but six floors of education with three classrooms
inside for students. This is our multipurpose room. Um, so we want this
to be a space for the community. The state already committed $10 million to
the museum, but the majority of funding is coming from donations to the
Holocaust Legacy Foundation. With the museum being the first of its kind in
New England, Kipnis hopes to inspire and teach the community tourists and
the world for years to come. And we want visitors to feel empowered. We
want them to go out and have the courage to make a difference. We want
them to speak up when they need to speak up. Currently, the museum is on
track to open early spring of next year on scene in boston. Alyssa Azar off
your local station, boston 25 News.
