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.