Local museum showcases personal artifacts from Holocaust survivors in โStories of Survivalโ
1925, Courtesy of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, Photograph by Jim Lommasson (Courtesy of the Holocaust Museum Houston)HOUSTON โ Holocaust Museum Houston presents โStories of Survival: Object. Memory,โ a new exhibition showcasing more than 60 personal items brought to America by survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. The exhibition includes artifacts and stories of eight Houston-area Holocaust survivors, as well as those who experienced genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Syria. โThe process of marrying the two brings to life the human rights atrocities suffered by so many, while poignantly showcasing their stories of survival.โโStories of Survivalโ is a project of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and photographer Jim Lommasson. Holocaust Museum Houston is opened Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.
Why the brutal history of Christopher Columbus has become a focal point of racial tensions in the US today
Several Christopher Columbus statues in the U.S., including one in Houston, were defaced by protesters as tensions on systematic racism are on the rise nationwide. The statue, in the Houston Museum Districtโs Bell Park, that was defaced Thursday morning was a gift from the Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Greater Houston in Columbusโ 500-year anniversary in 1992. But for several years, historians have dug deeper into his violent past and the way he treated Indigenous people. He had also enacted policies of forced labor in which Indigenous people were forced to work for the profit of European colonizers. Today, many cities and states in the U.S. have dropped celebrations of Columbus Day in October and instead celebrate โIndigenous Peoples Dayโ to stand in solidarity with Native Americans.