Events

Join the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and the Virginia Holocaust Museum to dive into a closer look at partnerships between the Jewish & Black Communities during the 20th century. This educator workshop will feature a tour of VMHC’s newest exhibition, “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Rosenwald, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America,” and guided source analysis of paired documents. In addition, the Virginia Holocaust Museum will discuss the experiences, common ground and support found between Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and Black Americans that were subjected to oppression and discrimination in the United States. This workshop will last from 10:00-1:00 and is free, but participants must register in advance. Lunch and certificates of completion will be provided. Participants in this program will receive a $50.00 participation stipend. Educators in the following counties (Amherst, Bedford, Bland, Botetourt, Buchanan, Campbell, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Franklin, Galax, Giles, Grayson, Henry, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Montgomery, Nelson, Patrick, Pulaski, Radford, Roanoke, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe counties) are also eligible for an additional $200.00 travel stipend. Please email Director of Education Maggie Creech with any questions at mcreech@virginiahistory.org. To register, click HERE!

VHM is thrilled to join dozens of other organizations around the region in hosting an event for the artoberVA All-Access Pay-What-You-Will series presented by @cultureworksrva. On Oct. 26th at 1 PM, join the Virginia Holocaust Museum for a behind-the-scenes archives tour and participate in The Butterfly Project! The Butterfly Project is a call to action through education, the arts and memorial-making. By painting ceramic butterflies, which are displayed as symbols of resilience and hope, participants remember the 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust. After learning about artifacts from our collections, each participant will learn about a child who perished during the Holocaust and paint a ceramic butterfly in their memory. All butterflies painted will then be fired on behalf of the Museum and eventually used for a display here at VHM! We recommend this event for adults and students 6th grade and up. While this event is free and open to the public, space is limited. Register HERE!      

Educator Workshop at the Virginia Holocaust Museum Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum and Centropa for a day of professional development focused on Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport.  On November 9-10, 1938, the Nazi regime directed pogroms against Jews throughout the German Reich (Germany, occupied Austria and Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia). Known as Kristallnacht, local people and SS hunted, kidnapped, and murdered Jews, burned synagogues, and destroyed shops. This was a turning point in the Holocaust, an increase in violence against Jews. The following month, the British government agreed to take Jewish children from these countries. The trains that transported almost 10,000 children from 1938-1940—from everyone and everything they knew to England—were known as Kindertransports. In this workshop, we will share first-hand stories of Kristallnacht and Kindertransport from Centropa interviews, along with photographs, short multimedia films, and podcasts that bring this history to life for your students. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator Resources A certificate of attendance To Register Click HERE! To Download the Program Flyer click HERE!

Educator Workshop. (Full - Waitlist Only) Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum for a day of professional development focused on examining the events of the Holocaust through the lens of science and medicine. Topics that will be focused on include eugenics, the Nazi euthanasia program and Aktion T4, Nazi medical experiments as well as the role of medical professionals.  Decision-making, the responsibility of the individual and the effects on victims of the Holocaust are also a central theme of this workshop. Educators will also learn about Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor, from her son Dr. Alex Kor.  At 10 years old Eva and her twin sister Miriam were subjected to horrific medical experimentation in Auschwitz under the direction of SS doctor, Josef Mengele.  Participants will view a screening of the documentary film Eva and have the opportunity to talk with Eva in the Museum’s Dimensions in Testimony Theater. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator Resources A Certificate of Attendance Click HERE to Register!  (Full - Waitlist Only) Click HERE to Download Flyer Deadline for Registration is December 3rd, 2024 For questions about the workshop please contact mferenczy@vaholocaust.org  

Location: The Weinstein JCC JCC 5400 Club 5403 Monument Ave Richmond, VA  23226 The Memoir of Ilse Seger: Wife, Mother, Hostage, Nazi Resister edited by Melissa Kravetz, tells the story of an ordinary woman who resisted authoritarianism in Nazi Germany well before anyone knew what would unfold, and for that reason, Ilse was quite extraordinary and can serve as a role model for all of us. Melissa will give a presentation about her book at the JCC 5400 Club. She is an Associate Professor of History and Co-Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Longwood University, where she has worked since 2013.  She also teaches K-12 teachers in the Alexander Lebenstein Teacher Education Institute at the Virginia Holocaust Museum every summer. Her first book, Women Doctors in Weimar and Nazi Germany: Maternalism, Eugenics, and Professional Identity was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2019. After Melissa's presentation, she will take questions from the audience and be available to sign her book. Registration information: To register for the live event, please email kadams@vaholocaust.org. To register to attend virtually on Zoom, please click this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TbBqonu_QgWU0b8SW3DxVw You will immediately get a registration page when you click it. The page includes a drop-down box to select the date of the meeting you are joining. Then you enter your first and last name and your email address and click "Register." You will then receive a page with a link to join the Webinar. YOU SHOULD KEEP THE PAGE WITH THE LINK TO JOIN BUT DO NOT CLICK THE LINK TO JOIN UNTIL MONDAY at 12:15. Once you have clicked it your name will go into a "virtual waiting room" and the host (Shari Menlowe-Barck) will admit you to the meeting when the meeting begins. There may be a short delay before you are admitted as the host is admitting several participants.

Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum for a day of professional development focused on examining the events of the Holocaust through the lens of resistance. Dr. Melissa Kravetz will share the firsthand account of IIse Seger, the wife of Gerhart Seger, a German politician who opposed the Nazis and was imprisoned immediately after Hitler took power.  She will share how The Memoir of Ilse Seger: Wife, Mother, Hostage, Nazi Resister (Indiana University Press, 2024) can be used to teach about resistance to the Nazis, political opposition to Nazism, and gender under the Nazis.   Melissa Kravetz is an Associate Professor of History and Co-Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Longwood University. She also teaches K-12 teachers at the Alexander Lebenstein Teacher Education Institute at the Virginia Holocaust Museum every summer. Learn the history, best practices, and resources to use in the classroom to help your students critically examine the topic of resistance.  Decision making, the responsibility of the individual and the effects on victims of the Holocaust are also a central theme of this workshop. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator resources A certificate of attendance Register Here! Download Flyer Here! Deadline for Registration is January 14th, 2025 A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond.  Scholarships are to help cover travel, housing, and meals.  Please contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply.         

Location: The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley                    901 Amherst Street, Winchester, Virginia 22601 Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum (VHM) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as we bring our resources to Winchester for a day of professional development focused on examining and responding to antisemitism. Educators will reflect on the impact of antisemitism in communities, learn to recognize antisemitic ideas in context and respond in a way that maintains or restores a positive school climate for all students. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator Resources A Certificate of Attendance Deadline for Registration is February 19, 2025 Register Here! Download the Flyer Here! For questions about the workshop please contact mferenczy@vaholocaust.org

@Virginia Holocaust Museum Members of the World War II Heritage Alliance, The Virginia Holocaust Museum, The Virginia War Memorial, Hampton Roads Naval Museum, The Military Aviation Museum and the National D-Day and MacArthur Memorials present “Teaching About World War II Using Personal Stories.” Join us to hear the courageous and untold stories from World War II from our archives. Learn the history, best practices, and resources to use in the classroom. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Class resources A certificate of attendance Register HERE! Download Flyer HERE! Deadline for Registration is February 27th, 2025 A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond.  Scholarships are to help cover travel, housing, and meals.  Please contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply.  

Join us for an engaging professional development workshop designed to equip educators with the tools to analyze and teach the impact of propaganda during the Nazi era. Propaganda surrounds us everywhere, in both past and present. This workshop will explore key terms, definitions, and the historical context of Nazi propaganda, including the role of figures like Joseph Goebbels. Participants will engage in a hands-on lesson plan analyzing primary sources and examining how Nazi propaganda targeted different victim groups. We will also draw connections to American history, demonstrating how to incorporate this theme into a variety of curricula. Educators will discuss how to empower students to recognize and critically analyze propaganda in contemporary contexts. Overall, the workshop will provide insight into how these sensitive topics can be taught and can help leave a lasting impression on your students both inside and outside the classroom. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator resources A certificate of attendance Register here! Deadline for Registration is April 4th, 2025 https://www.vaholocaust.org/decoding-decepti…ducator-workshop/A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond.  Scholarships are to help cover travel, housing, and meals.  Please contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply.       

Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum and Echoes and Reflections for a day of professional development.  This workshop is designed to enhance teachers’ knowledge, capacity, and confidence to teach about the Holocaust, with a special focus on the human story. Educators will explore classroom lessons, visual history testimonies and other resources that examine aspects of the history and its continued relevance today. Special focus is on using assets related to the Dimensions in Testimony platform both on-site and in your classroom. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator resources A certificate of attendance Register here! Deadline for Registration is April 16th, 2025 A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond.  Scholarships are to help cover travel, housing, and meals.  Please contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply.  

April 27 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorates the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust and honors the lives of those who survived. We invite you to join us as we reflect upon the tragedy of the Holocaust, remember those who perished, and honor our Virginia area survivors during this meaningful and inspirational service. The commemoration is FREE to attend, but registration is suggested. Click HERE to Register! Keynote Speaker Ambassador Dennis Ross Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He was instrumental in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the 1997 Hebron Accord, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together. Later, he served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and as National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first six months of the administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Register Here!

Kerrie Taber, the author of “Quarantining Hate”, will be speaking at the JCC’s 5400 Club on Monday, May 5th. The program is from 12:30-1:30pm. Registration for the book talk at the JCC is free and open to the public. In addition to in-person attendance, attending the program on Zoom is also an option. After seeing hate grow for a decade, Kerrie Taber wrote Quarantining Hate, which is about how a society needs to push back against hate to prevent it from spreading. Using her personal story about finding out her grandfather was a wanted WWII war criminal directly involved in over 14,000 Jewish people’s deaths in Lithuania and research into society and hate, Taber hopes that readers will see that combating hate requires active resistance to its spread. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is recommended. In addition to in-person attendance, attending the program on Zoom is also an option.  

Location:  Virginia Holocaust Museum Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum for a day of professional development focused on examining the events of the Holocaust through the lens of collaboration and complicity. The Nazis could not have carried out the Holocaust alone. Ordinary people played a key role in the persecution and murder of Europe’s Jews.  How did individuals respond to the persecution and murder of their Jewish classmates, coworkers, neighbors, and friends? How did relationships and roles shape their decisions? Learn the history, best practices, and resources to use in the classroom to help your students critically examine the choices and behaviors of people during the Holocaust.  Decision-making, the responsibility of the individual and the effects on victims of the Holocaust are also a central theme of this workshop. Educators will hear from Dr. Kerrie Taber author of “Quarantining Hate.” Dr. Taber will share how to respond to growing threats of hatred and how in learning and confronting her family's past; her grandfather was responsible for the deaths of 14,000 Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust, which has influenced her work to speak out against injustice and hate. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator resources A certificate of attendance Register here! Deadline for Registration is April 29th, 2025 A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond.  Scholarships are to help cover travel, housing, and meals.  Please contact Megan Ferenczy at mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply.         

Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum (VHM) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for a day of professional development focused on examining and responding to antisemitism.  Educators will reflect on the impact of antisemitism in communities, learn to recognize antisemitic ideas in context and respond in a way that maintains or restores a positive school climate for all students. This workshop is free for educators and includes: Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch Educator Resources A Certificate of Attendance Deadline for Registration is April 26, 2025 Register Here! For questions about the workshop please contact mferenczy@vaholocaust.org

Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum (VHM) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for a day of professional development focused on examining and responding to antisemitism. Educators will reflect on the impact of antisemitism in communities, learn to recognize antisemitic ideas in context and respond in a way that maintains or restores a positive school climate for all students. This workshop is FREE for educators and includes: ·Breakfast, Coffee, and Lunch ·Educator Resources ·Certificate of attendance Travel Scholarships: A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond. They are to help cover travel, housing, and meals. Contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply. To Register Click Here! Questions : Contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org

Summer 2025 On-site at VHM June 16-18 |  8:30 – 5:00 (45 recertification points) Click HERE to Learn More!

Internationally celebrated American pianist Carolyn Enger will present her powerful live documentary, The Mischlinge Exposé, at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 14, in the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s historic Choral Synagogue. The date is significant because on September 15, 1935, the Nazi regime enacted two pivotal race laws—the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. These laws formally defined and discriminated against individuals known as Mischlinge—a derogatory term for those with one or two Jewish grandparents, considered neither fully Jewish nor fully German under Nazi ideology. The Mischlinge Exposé explores this little-known aspect of Holocaust history through a compelling blend of live piano performance, video, and audio testimony. Enger shares the stories of her father and godmother, both of whom were labeled Mischling by the Nazis. Their testimonies are interwoven with Enger’s performance of works by salon-era composers who converted to Christianity in the years before the war, as well as pieces that grapple with identity in the postwar era. Through this deeply personal lens, Enger examines what it meant to exist between worlds in early 20th-century Germany—and invites audiences to reflect on universal themes of identity, inclusion, and empathy. Event Details: 📅 Sunday, September 14 🕔 5:00 p.m. 📍 Choral Synagogue, Virginia Holocaust Museum 🎟️ Free and open to the public 🪑 Seating is first-come, first-served 📌 Advance registration is required and must be completed at least 24 hours in advance. No walk-ins will be admitted. Enger maintains an active performance schedule across two continents, with recent appearances at the National Gallery in Oslo, Baruch College in New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.