Illinois Holocaust Museum reopens in temporary Loop location, with new exhibits detailing history of genocide
The has closed for a year to undergo construction. Now, the museum is turning a challenge into an opportunity.
The museum has created new exhibits, in a new location, so even more people can hear its message.
The Skokie-based museum's new temporary location is at State and Kinzie streets, and goes by the moniker .
"It's going to be a wonderful opportunity for people who can't get up to Skokie. For tourists who don't have a car, (they) can now hear the stories of our survivors," Arielle Weininger said.
Even in its temporary location, the museum offers plenty of lessons for visitors to learn.
"It allows us to see the conditions that led to Nazism, the exclusion of Jews, that led to the genocide of millions," Kelley Szany said.
Weininger said that the construction plans include an expansion to the lobby and expanded seating in the auditorium. Meanwhile, crews packed up the artifacts, put most of them in special storage for safekeeping, and created exhibits in the temporary location.
The core exhibit explains the history of the Holocaust and how the Illinois museum was launched. There are a number of other exhibits for guests to see, including an interactive theater where you can hear testimony from a Holocaust survivor. A separate display turns focus on other examples of genocide.
"The whole reason the survivors established the museum is so that their stories are told, and this is just a way to broaden that," Weininger said.
The museum's Loop location officially opens to the public on Tuesday.
There is one artifact that was too big to remove from the museum's home in Skokie: a full-sized railcar that took Jews to concentration camps. Museum workers restored and protected the railcar so it wouldn't get damaged during construction.
