Ben Akselrod z’l (left) and Leon Kahn z’l (right) at the opening of the VHEC’s first exhibition, Anne Frank In The World, in 1994.
A Permanent Legacy
The Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society was founded in 1983 by survivors of the Holocaust. The founders’ goal, realized in 1994, was to leave a permanent legacy in the form of a centre devoted to Holocaust based anti-racism education.
Private funds were raised to secure approximately 4,000 square feet of space in the expansion of the Jewish Community Centre in the early 1990s. It was a complicated project brought to fruition by many committees but guided particularly by the VHCS Executive Director at the time, Ronnie Tessler, and board member Arthur Pouchet. The architects, Peter Rees and Jack Lutsky, and Museum of Anthropology consultant, David Cunningham were key participants. The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre opened in the fall of 1994 with the inaugural exhibit Anne Frank in The World: 1929–1945, produced by the Anne Frank Center USA, New York.
Robert Krell served as founding President of the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society from 1983 to 1998. Dr. Roberta Kremer succeeded Ronnie Tessler as Executive Director in 1996. Shortly after, Frieda Miller was hired as Director of Education and Rome Fox came aboard as part-time Coordinator of Volunteers. Robbie Waisman took over from Robert Krell as President in 1998.
The VHEC: A Teaching Museum
The VHEC is Western Canada’s leading Holocaust teaching museum and reaches more than 25,000 students each year. We promote human rights, social justice and genocide awareness through education and commemoration of the Holocaust.
The VHEC produces thematic exhibitions, school programs, teaching materials, online exhibitions and has assembled and stewards Western Canada’s largest Holocaust-related museum collection, archives, survivor testimony project, library, rare books and special collections, and resource centre.
Visitors to the museum can interact with the depth and breadth of our collection and its significant potential for teaching the Shoah and its enduring lessons.
The museum’s collections database allows visitors to interact with key themes in Holocaust history and with artefacts, documents and testimonies from our impressive holdings at the touch of a screen. An audio-visual programming space allows survivors and educators to interact with students and participants in remote locations.
Through teaching exhibitions, docent-led visits to the Centre, student symposia on the Holocaust and in-class resources, we provide educators with tools, strategies and opportunities to explore the complicated history of the Holocaust. Our educational programs and resources foster an increased understanding of the Holocaust and its present-day relevance, and promote intercultural sensitivity and engaged citizenship among students and community members.
Exhibitions
The VHEC has presented more than 50 exhibitions, many featuring specific local or Canadian contexts, each accompanied by educational programs and materials. Several original VHEC exhibitions have travelled to other museums and organizations across Canada and beyond.
