The FHM Artifact Collection Program

  Kristen Wright, The Florida Holocaust Museum’s Writer and Digital Content Manager

Central to the mission of The Florida Holocaust Museum is the program to collect, preserve, and make available to the public the historical record and artistic and interpretation of the Holocaust and other genocides. The Museum collects and maintains the material that supports its efforts in the areas of research, exhibition,  education, and commemoration. The focus of The FHM’s collecting efforts (and collection) is on the policies, events, and experiences associated with the Holocaust. 

Last week, Colin Jenkins donated a number of original materials related to his grandparents experience during the Holocaust.  Included in the donation was his grandfather’s passport, identity papers, including his grandmother’s false identity card; medals awarded to his father in WWI, and artwork created by his grandmother while they lived in hiding in the south of France.

As an American Alliance of Museums accredited institution, The FHM assumes full responsibility for its long term care and storage and commits itself to making this material accessible to curators, scholars and researchers, in perpetuity.

The FHM’s collecting activity extends backward to the end of the World War I and forward to the close of the Jewish displaced persons (DP) camps in the mid-1950s. These chronological boundaries can be further extended by collecting materials related to Holocaust and crimes against humanity war crimes trials; testimonies about the Holocaust and its aftermath; materials regarding restitution efforts; contemporary documentation concerning Holocaust deniers; other known and documented instances of genocide; the civil rights struggle in the United States and elsewhere; current examples of discrimination; and by accepting other materials in order to preserve the integrity of personal collections when they are offered for donation.  It is also a major focus of the Museum to acquire art that relates to the Holocaust, genocide and appropriate areas of the human condition.

In order to continue to document the Holocaust accurately, authentically, and powerfully, The FHM continues to seek original material about the Holocaust, the American and world responses, armed and spiritual resistance and rescue, liberation, and the reestablishment of life after the Holocaust. The FHM is imploring survivors and subsequent generations of the Tampa Bay community to share their stories. We are looking for original documents (such as identity cards, work permits, ration cards, passports, immigration certificates, ship tickets, postcards), letters, diaries, original works of art and music, photographs, clothing, religious materials, yizkor books, personal artifacts, toys, historic film footage, home movies, and other artifacts that were kept with you, created, and/or used throughout the time period surrounding the Holocaust.  Your stories are very important to us.

For donation inquiries, please contact the Curator of Exhibitions & Collections.