Florida Holocaust Museum Inc

Programs: In service to its mission, during fy 2016-17: 150,000 people reached annually inside the museum and through its educational outreach programs through its world-class exhibitions and programs, the florida holocaust museum(fhm) spreads awareness about the holocaust, genocide and human rights in both historic and cross-cultural contexts. Using personal stories, academic lectures, history, art and photo exhibitions as well as explorations of current events, the museum's prismatic approach aims to create a better future for all. (continued on schedule o) 1,500 first responders trained in law enforcement & society at a time when community and law enforcement relations are fragile, the fhm has stepped up to offer this important initiative to florida. This program enables law enforcement officers to examine the role their profession played in the holocaust and challenges them to reflect upon their professional and personal responsibilities in a democracy today. Training for the st. Petersburg police department, pasco fire department, homeland security officers and new recruits in the tampa police department took place during 2015-2017. Leadership from the tallahassee and gainesville police departments came to observe classes before scheduling the program in their area. 200 hours of survivor testimony captured and digitized since the holocaust was a series of atrocities inflicted by people on people and a matter of great moral and ethical significance, it is crucial that the human experience of the victims be told in the first person so that it may be at least partly understood. The museum's commitment to filming and digitization will keep the stories of holocaust survivors, liberators and rescuers alive for future generations. 1 of 3 accredited holocaust museums in the united states the fhm's ongoing commitment to professionalism, standards and best practices allows it to host numerous national and international exhibitions, attracting tens of thousands visitors every year and reinforcing the important role the museum and florida have as international tourist destinations. In 2016, the fhm hosted the u. S. Premiere of matzevot for everyday use: photographs by lukasz baksik, which documents how jewish gravestones in poland have been stolen and reappropriated as parts of fences, pavements, and even grindstones since the 1940s, and created a study guide for educators about the content of the exhibition. In february 2018 the fhm will host the highly-anticipated blockbuster exhibition "operation finale: the capture and trial of adolph eichmann. " adolph eichmann, the head of the nazis' homicidal "jewish department" who zealously managed the transport of millions of innocent people to death camps, vanished after world war ii. In this new exhibition, photographs, film and recently declassified spy artifacts reveal the dramatic secret history behind the daring abduction and globally broadcast trial of a principal perpetrator of the final solution. More than 100 witnesses testified during the 1961 trial, many of them holocaust survivors who put faces to the unimaginable number of mass murders that eichmann's lawyers claimed was an exercise in bookkeeping. Teaching trunks the museum has been in 441 schools, exposing 72,215 children to the concepts of upstander behavior, the rights and responsibilities of living in a democracy, and speaking out against injustice. The florida holocaust museum sends teaching trunks containing grade-appropriate sets of books, cds, dvds, literature- based curriculum, lesson plans and other instructional aides to florida schools upon request at no charge. The teaching trunks have reached tens of thousands of students in thirty-nine counties throughout florida. Teacher trainings the fhm worked with 1,178 teachers this year, touching the lives of many more students through the education of their teachers and assisting with the implementation of statutorily required instruction about the holocaust (chapter 1003. 42). The museum has empowered teachers through trainings on topics including: the two-day summer institute armenian genocide education workshop in-service training on teaching social studies through holocaust literature, diaries and first-person accounts. Usc shoah iwitness workshop with lessons featuring the museum's testimony and artifacts "echoes and reflections" curriculum distance learning and resources the museum has recently begun skyping survivors and holocaust educators into classrooms and libraries across florida. We offer online curriculum including literature-based lesson plans for grades 2-12, interactive study guides aligned with florida standards, iwitness; an interactive florida standards-based lessons using eye-witness testimonies and objects in the fhm's collection, and regularly provide curriculum and lesson plans to the online toolbox of florida teaching standards, cpalms. Our most recent addition is a dynamic virtual tour of the fhm's permanent collection. Created in partnership with the university of south florida library, the virtual tour will begin pilot testing spring of 2018. We are looking to offer educator and docent-led tours to schools too far away to visit the museum.