World's Largest Collection of Holocaust Artifacts Moving to Bowie

Thanks to a $15 million gift, Bowie will become home to the world’s largest collection of Holocaust-related artifacts as a storage and design center for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The $40 million, 100,000-square-foot warehouse will move into what was the Maryland Science and Technology Center @Melford, reports the Washington Business Journal.

The David and Fela Shapell Family Collections and Conservation Center, named for the Holocaust survivors who donated $15 million to the project, will be a two-story private facility in Bowie for storing artifacts and designing new exhibits.

The museum’s existing collection is expected to double in the next decade, according to its website.

The National Capital Planning Commission is expected to approve the new warehouse next month, the Business Journal says. The warehouse will be located in Melford, a 466-acre, mixed-use business park.

The museum collection is key to ensuring the permanence of Holocaust remembrance, research, and education, its staff says. “With the rise of Holocaust denial, the power and authenticity of our collection assumes ever greater urgency,” the museum website says.

The Shapell Center is being designed with highly specialized laboratories, equipment, and climate-controlled environments required to preserve the variety of media and artifacts in the museum’s collection. The Holocaust Museum is a world leader in the preservation of perishable artifacts.

Evidence of the Holocaust is being gathered In 50 countries across six continents, the museum says, before fragile documents and artifacts disintegrate and while those who can bear witness are still able to do so.

»Architect’s drawing of the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections and Conservation Center planned in Bowie for the Holocaust Museum. Supporters are raising $40 million to build the center, which will permanently house and preserve the collection of record on the Holocaust.