Seventeen years ago on this date, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened its doors following a unanimous Congressional vote in 1980 calling for the federal government to allot land for its construction.
In 1988 President Ronald Regain laid the cornerstone of the building, designed by Holocaust survivor James Ingo Freed. The April 22nd dedication included speeches by US President Bill Clinton, Israeli President Chaim Herzog, Chariman Harvey Meyerhoff and Elie Wiesel.
The museum stands today as a living memorial to the Holocaust that “inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, promote human dignity, an prevent genocide.”
Since openings its doors, over thirty million visitors have toured the museum including eighty-eight heads of state and over 3,500 foreign officials from more than 132 countries. Ninety percent of visitors have been non-Jewish while twelve percent have been international visitors and thirty-four percent have been school-aged children.
The museum hosts over 12,920 artifacts, 83,000 historic photographs, a registry of 200,260 Holocaust survivors, more than 1,000 hours of archival footage and a library that includes 86,000 items in 55 languages and over 9,000 oral history testimonies.
For more information on the “United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, please visit http://www.ushmm.org/.
