By Michael Yoshida, 7 News WHDH
June 5, 2023
BOSTON (WHDH) – Organizers filed new artist’s renderings of the planned Holocaust Museum and Education Center with the city of Boston this week, providing a first look at the museum which will pay tribute victims of the Holocaust.
The museum will be located on Tremont Street, next to Boston Common and along the Freedom Trail.
It will feature a bay window displaying an authentic rail car from the time, according to organizers.
“That exhibit will not just be experienced by the visitor inside but also by the passersby on the outside,” said Holocaust Legacy Foundation Co-Founder Jody Kipnis.
Speaking with 7NEWS, Kipnis said the railcar exhibit is one of the ways museum organizers are hoping to give people a window into the past.
“They’re going to watch the visitors from the inside file onto that railcar and not exit,” she said. “Those passersby will really see that moment in history, the Holocaust, when freedom is lost and Jews were brought to killing centers.”
The museum will have interactive galleries, artifacts and media, with one unique feature being the ability to engage with holographic survivors.
“This will allow the visitor to be an active participant in a real-time conversation with that survivor,” Kipnis said.
David Schaecter is one of the survivors that will be featured as a hologram. He recorded himself answering up to 1,000 questions on the Holocaust and his experience.
“Children need to know history,” he said. “I want them to know, too, what happened.”
Together, the exhibits will all be part of what the museum hopes will provide visitors with a cautionary experience.
“They will be brought back in time to learn about the history and lessons of the Holocaust as well as other genocides,” Kipnis said.
The Boston Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to open in April, 2026.