The mission of the Holocaust Museum in Naples is to advance knowledge and comprehension by educating people about the history and lessons of the Holocaust.
It started as a display made by students and instructors at a Naples school and developed into the historical center and instructive point as a non-profit driven organization that it is today. These days, more than 17,000 students every year come into contact with the place and a large number of guests visit every year.
The exhibition hall shows more than 1,000 antiques from the Holocaust and World War II and also unique photos. A significant number of the items have been given by devoted individuals in the region including nearby survivors and heroes.
The Museum houses more than 1,000 unique photos and antiques identified with the Holocaust and World War II. These things are shown sequentially, from the ascent of Nazism to the Allied Liberation and Nuremberg Trials.
A considerable lot of the items have been given or perpetually credited to the Museum by local Survivors, Liberators and other committed individuals. Many exceptional people who included groups individuals have contributed extraordinarily to the Museum’s Permanent Collection. Another benefactor is the Wynalda family, contributing more than 100 interesting objects to the Museum. Especially intriguing are the photos, archives and objects that had a place with the groups of Survivors and Liberators who now live in Southwest Florida, a considerable lot of whom are volunteers at the Museum.
Guests may see the Collection unaccompanied, or pick between a drive-by visit and an independently directed Audio Tour.
Following a four-year search, the Holocaust Museum and Education Center of Southwest Florida procured a genuine World War II –railroad car. This 10-ton train unit went to the Museum from Europe on May 16, 2007 and has experienced careful restoration. An uncommon relic, this train unit is a significant and portable instructive apparatus to help the Museum’s central goal to educate the lessons of the Holocaust and fight for tolerance and understanding among people.
Then finally there is the railroad car. The hunt and securing of the train unit was attempted by Jack Nortman, a Board Member and Past President of the Museum. Mr. Nortman’s family was caught in the web of the Nazis in Eastern Europe. Both of his folks survived and he was conceived in Landsberg, a refugee camp in Germany. The freight car is on loan to the Museum from Jack Nortman and The Boxcar Foundation.
The Museum’s one of a kind Boxcar Transportation and Education Project guarantees that a critical bit of history will visit students on their school grounds, filling in as a mobile display, the centerpiece in finding out about the Holocaust, its terrible horrors and the message it challenges for us to do today .
Since the spring of 2008, the Boxcar Transportation and Education Project have been in touch by more than 90,000 individuals across South Florida. The Boxcar has gone to more than 60 areas, including open libraries, churches, elementary, middle and secondary schools, schools and colleges.
