Elly Kleinman Will Carry On the Legacy of Holocaust History

The Kleinman Holocaust Education Center, also known as KHEC, has rebranded as The Amud Aish Memorial Museum, and it is expected to open in the first half of 2017. The KHEC started off as a small education center, primarily meant to educate the public and scholars on the religious perspective of the Holocaust, along with a few small exhibit components. But as the organization’s mission, vision and work expanded, it became clear that it can no longer be described as a center. In order to reflect its expanded role, Elly Kleinman turned to his loyal community and asked them to help him create a new identity, which eventually resulted in the new Amud Aish Memorial Museum.

The museum is located in Brooklyn, and as previously mentioned, it is founded by Elly Kleinman, a child of two Holocaust survivors, and a committed member of the Jewish Orthodox community. Unlike most Holocaust museums, The Amud Aish Memorial Museum will focus on personal experiences and stories of Holocaust victims, and their struggle to keep their faith in the most incredible ways, despite the ruthless hardship. In these dark times of extraordinary adversity, maintaining their faith was central to many of them.

Since the end of the Holocaust, in these 71 years there hasn’t been a single museum that represented the experiences of the religiously observant communities. Although there are many museums located all over the world, they are all generally centered on the story of the perpetrator, why the Holocaust happened, and how to ensure it will never repeat. But as the son of Holocaust survivors, Kleinman felt that for too long the story has been told from the perpetrators’ perspective, and it was about time to honor the Holocaust victims and survivors by presenting their story too. Telling the stories of those who lived and died during the Holocaust, stories which have mostly been untold, is exactly what the Amud Aish Memorial Museum will be doing.

Second, third and fourth generations of Holocaust survivors like Mr. Kleinman must work even harder to ensure that the lessons will continue to guide us. Elly reminds us that we all have a responsibility to remember and never to forget, and one way to do that and keep the culture alive is through these types of events. For the first time ever, survivors can tell their narrative and fill in a large missing part of Holocaust history. Most of the documents and artifacts that will be displayed in the museum are donated by survivors and their families who previously were unwilling to give them to other Holocaust museums.