Interviewer: Victor Romero

Project: University Of Houston

Ira Perry, director of marketing and public auctions for the Holocaust Museum Houston discusses many aspects of the museum, beginning with Holocaust survivor Siegi Izakson‟s idea to create the facility. Built entirely with private funding, the museum was designed by architect Ralph Applebaum incorporated elements into the design to symbolize the tightening control over the lives of European Jews throughout the 1930s and 1940s, culminating in the deaths of over six million people. Perry talks about the permanent exhibits, which include Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers, the Eric Alexander Garden of Hope, the railcar like those used to carry Jews to the concentration camps, and a Danish boat like those used to ferry Jews from Denmark to safety in Sweden. With an emphasis on education, the museum also employs special exhibits, school tours, the trunk program, and teacher training to help for children understand the museum‟s message to never let something like the Holocaust happen again. Perry also mentions some of the survivor stories that are featured at the museum and survivors themselves who volunteer and give tours at the museum. Perry explains that by putting a human face on what happened to the Jews, it makes it more difficult to ignore the reality of what happened and hopefully encourages people to stand up against tyranny.