Core Museum Exhibits
Located on the museum's first floor, our core exhibits narrate the complex and sobering history of the Holocaust. As visitors progress through these exhibits—and chronologically through the events of the Holocaust—they are presented with a glimpse into the systematic destruction of European Jewry and the dangers of intolerance. Three hundred artifacts and the testimonies of local Holocaust survivors expand upon this history, representing the tangible and personal realities of this tragic event.
Children’s Memorial
The unique Children’s Memorial, an exhibit honoring the memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust, opened in 2022. It is a significant addition to the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s permanent collection.
Using mirrors and somber lighting for dramatic effect, the Children’s Memorial creates a stunning visual of an infinite panorama of empty classroom desks representing the unfathomable number of children and their unborn descendants who were victims of the Nazi’s Final Solution to exterminate Jews from Europe.
The exhibit was made possible by a generous donation from Dr. Donald S. and Beejay Brown.
Featured Special Exhibit:
'Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman'
January 9 – March 31, 2023
Born in Poland in 1924, Faye Schulman received her first camera from her brother when she was 13. That camera ultimately saved her life and allowed her to document Jewish partisan activity later. As a result, she is one of the only known Jewish partisan photographers.
Schulman's rare collection of images captures the camaraderie, horror, loss, bravery, and triumph of the rag-tag, resilient partisans—some Jewish, some not—who fought the Germans and their collaborators.
'Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photography of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman' is a compelling traveling exhibition produced by the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF) and curated by Jill Vexler, Ph. D, poses probing questions about this incredible woman and the people whose images she documented.
Auschwitz/Oswiecim
Auschwitz/Oswiecim is a traveling exhibit created by the Virginia Holocaust Museum to commemorate local survivors who endured this notorious camp.
Located on our second floor, illustrates the significance of Auschwitz within Nazi ideology: the three camps that made up the Auschwitz complex represent Nazi policy in a microcosm.
As World War II ground on and the Holocaust proceeded relentlessly, Auschwitz came to serve the SS as the centralized hub, and the experimental crossroads for each phase and virtually every aspect of the Holocaust. In each of the three main Auschwitz camps virtually every inhumanity inflicted by the SS upon its victims was introduced, refined, and expanded into a lethal calculus that transformed Auschwitz into the single most important site of the European Nazi Holocaust. In its most expanded form, at some point in 1944, the inmate population in the three main camps combined exceeded 200,000, making Auschwitz into a Nazi city of suffering, and a place where, along with the crammed death traps that were the ghettos in Warsaw and Lodz, the Holocaust exacted its greatest toll.
Jewish-American Hall of Fame
The Virginia Holocaust Museum is proud to be the permanent home of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame exhibit. Over 50 Jewish American men and women ― who have made important contributions in all fields of endeavor ― have been inducted since 1969.
The large artistic plaques have been created by outstanding sculptors, many of whom have won the American Numismatic Society’s J. Sanford Saltus Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Art of the Medal and/or the American Numismatic Association’s Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture.
As people gaze on the portraits of Albert Einstein, George Gershwin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Joseph Pulitzer, Dr. Jonas Salk, et al, it is hoped that visitors will reflect on what contributions to humanity might have been made by the six million Jews (and their descendants) whose lives were viciously taken in the Holocaust.