RICHMOND, VA, UNITED STATES, December 9, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Virginia Holocaust Museum (VHM) in Richmond, Va., is proud to announce the opening of Dimensions in Testimony, a new permanent exhibit that showcases a unique collection of interactive Holocaust survivor biographies developed by the USC Shoah Foundation, a nonprofit organization based at the University of Southern California.
This remarkable exhibition is on the museum’s second floor in the new Alan and Halina Zimm Theater of Remembrance which was built specifically for the Dimensions in Testimony program. At present, there are only a few museums in the U.S. with Dimensions in Testimony exhibits.
The USC Shoah Foundation is dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust as a compelling voice for research, education, and action. Through the innovative tool of AI technology, Dimensions in Testimony enables museum visitors to listen to the personal stories told in pre-recorded video interviews of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide, and then to engage in Q&A-style conversations with them.
The exhibit at the Virginia Holocaust Museum features five interactive biographies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses, rotating on a monthly basis that started in November 2024 with Halina Zimm, a Holocaust survivor and a resident of Richmond. In 2023, Mrs. Zimm was videotaped for 15 hours over five days as she answered approximately 1,000 questions about her experience during the Holocaust.
“We are honored to be one of the few museums in the U.S. with a Dimensions in Testimony exhibit,” said Samuel Asher, Executive Director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum. “This amazing program allows visitors to hear firsthand accounts of witnesses to the Holocaust and to converse with them about their experiences. Also, we are thrilled to officially open the Alan and Halina Zimm Theater of Remembrance, a project that has been about two years in the making. It’s an intimate setting to share these important personal stories of survivors so that we never forget how their lives were forever impacted by the horrors of the Holocaust.”
“When we were first approached in 2020 by the Virginia Holocaust Museum regarding a Dimensions in Testimony program to be featured in a special theater, we were very impressed with the museum and its vision for the exhibit,” said Catherine E. Clark, Ph.D., senior director of programs at the USC Shoah Foundation. “Creating these interactive biographies is a labor of love for our team, and we want them to be used ethically and responsibly. Dimensions in Testimony will enrich the community’s understanding of the Holocaust and its eternal impact on the world.”
The five interactive biographies in the VHM’s Dimensions of Testimony exhibit include:
• Pinchas Gutter (1932 – ) – A Holocaust survivor of four concentration camps before being sent on a death march to Theresienstadt
• Eva Kor (1934-2019) – A Holocaust survivor who, along with her twin sister Miriam, was subjected to medical experiments conducted by Dr. Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp complex
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (1925 – ) – A Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp complex and a member of the infamous women’s orchestra
• Alan Moskin (1926-2023) – A veteran of World War II and liberator of the Gunskirchen concentration camp.
• Halina Zimm (1927 – ) – She witnessed the Warsaw Ghetto and participated in the Warsaw Uprising, a revolt led by Polish resistance forces.
The Dimensions in Testimony exhibit at the Virginia Holocaust Museum will run hourly with the first showing at 11 am and the final showing of the day at 3 pm. Reservations for the exhibit must be made online in advance due to limited seating in the 46-seat Alan and Halina Zimm Theater of Remembrance. To view a schedule of the interactive biographies showing in the theater and to make reservations, visit https://www.vaholocaust.org/.
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About the Virginia Holocaust Museum:
The Virginia Holocaust Museum, located at 2000 E. Cary St., preserves and documents the Holocaust in exhibits and its archival collections. Through the permanent exhibit, educational programming and outreach, the museum employs the history of the Holocaust and other genocides to educate and inspire future generations of Virginians to fight prejudice and indifference. Learn more at https://www.vaholocaust.org/.
Laurie Simpson Crouch
Virginia Holocaust Museum
+1 804-257-5400
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