Our Mission

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors' legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy.

History:

In 1981, Siegi Izakson, a Holocaust survivor and long-time Houston resident, had an epiphany. After attending an international gathering of Holocaust survivors in Israel, Izakson realized his peers were getting older, and as they passed away their stories and memories of unchecked prejudice would go with them. He returned to Houston, convinced that the city needed a Holocaust education center and memorial that would preserve for future generations the memory of those who had perished and the stories of those who had survived.

Shortly after his return from Israel, Izakson organized the Houston Council of Jewish Holocaust Survivors to help him implement his vision. He organized a speakers bureau of local Holocaust survivors to go out into the community and address students in their classrooms. Although the Houston Jewish Federation leadership did not initially commit to his dream, Izakson would keep working hard to further the concept.

Then, in 1990, Sandra Weiner, the president of Houston’s Jewish Federation, embraced Izakson’s idea. She used her considerable influence to invigorate the project and established the Holocaust Education Center and Memorial Museum with Martin Fein, the son of survivors, as its founding board chair and Lidya Osadchey as the center’s first director.